Development and phenotypic variability of genetically identical half mouse embryos

The growth and development of three groups of genetically identical F1 C57BL/6J female x SJL/J male mice were compared to examine whether embryo manipulation affects subsequent postnatal growth and development of mammalian embryos: (1) controls--the natural offspring of timed matings, (2) transferred controls--offspring from 2-cell embryos transferred to recipients 1 day asynchronous, and (3) transferred half embryos--offspring developing from one blastomere from the 2-cell stage transferred to recipients 1 day asynchronous. The recipients were C57BL/6J females. No differences were found in the age at eye opening and vaginal opening. At 5 days after birth the median body weights of the controls were lower than the weights of the transferred groups. This result could be explained by the larger litter size in the control group. The overall variances of the body weights did not differ between the groups. By the second week after birth a marked increase in overall variances of body weights of the transferred groups, compared with the control group, was observed. At 5 days after birth, the median tail lengths did not differ between groups, and overall variances were the same. By the second week, the overall variances of the tail lengths of the transferred groups were significantly greater than that of the control group. Possibly the increased overall variances of the body weight and the tail length of the transferred groups are related to the smaller litter size in these groups which affects competition for food and the ambient temperature in the nest. The overall results suggest newborn mice that have developed from half embryos have compensated for their initial deficiency. The intraclass correlation coefficients for body weight and tail length are approximately the same in all groups. Thus, producing artificial identical twins by embryo bisection may not affect their potential usefulness in the design of experiments.