Producing fully ES cell-derived mice from eight-cell stage embryo injections

Area of Science:

• * Developmental Biology
• * Genetics
• * Animal Models

Background:

• * Conventional methods for generating genetically modified mice involve chimera production and germ line transmission (GLT) testing.
• * This process is time-consuming and requires extensive breeding to obtain desired mutations.

Purpose of the Study:

• * To introduce a novel method, VelociMouse, to bypass the chimera stage in genetically modified mouse generation.
• * To achieve 100% germ line transmission efficiency in the F0 generation.
• * To streamline the creation of complex genotypes and reduce research timelines and costs.

Main Methods:

• * Genetically modified embryonic stem (ES) cells are injected into eight-cell embryos.
• * Embryos mature to the blastocyst stage and are transferred to surrogate mothers.
• * F0 generation mice are fully derived from the injected ES cells.

Main Results:

• * The VelociMouse method produces F0 mice with 100% germ line transmission (GLT) efficiency.
• * It enables efficient production of ES cell-derived mice from both male and female ES cells.
• * Allows for the direct creation of mice with complex genotypes, including homozygous knockouts and tissue-specific gene inactivation.

Conclusions:

• * VelociMouse significantly shortens project timelines and reduces mouse husbandry costs.
• * The method simplifies the generation of genetically modified mice, eliminating the need for chimera testing.
• * It facilitates the rapid creation of sophisticated mouse models for accelerated gene function studies and disease modeling.