Microinjection is a commonly used technique for DNA transformation in Caenorhabditis elegans. It is a powerful tool that links genetic and molecular analysis to phenotypic analysis. In this chapter we shall provide an overview of microinjection for germline transformation in worms. ...
Quantitative microinjection is used to introduce known quantities of molecules or probes into single cells to examine cellular function. The relatively large mammalian oocyte or egg is easily manipulated and can be injected with impermeant reagents including a variety of signaling ...
The mammalian oocyte develops within a complex of somatic cells known as a follicle, within which signals from the somatic cells regulate the oocyte, and signals from the oocyte regulate the somatic cells. Because isolation of the oocyte from the follicle disrupts these communication path ...
Sea urchin embryos are characterized by an extremely simple mode of development, rapid cleavage, high transparency, and well-defined cell lineage. Although they are not suitable for genetic studies, other approaches are successfully used to unravel mechanisms and molecules invol ...
Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) has become a unique and powerful tool for epigenetic reprogramming research and gene manipulation in animals since “Dolly,” the first animal cloned from an adult cell was reported in 1997. Although the success rates of somatic cloning have been ineffici ...
Understanding the cellular events during fertilization in mammals is a major challenge that can contribute to the improvement of future infertility treatments in humans and reproductive performance in farm animals. Of special interest is the role of the oocyte and sperm cytoskeleton ...
The microinjection of mRNA that is transcribed and capped in vitro into fertilized eggs and embryos of Xenopus laevis provides a powerful means for discovering the function of proteins during early development. Proteins may be overexpressed for a gain-of-function effect or exogenous p ...
The microinjection of cRNA encoding phospholipase Cζ (PLC zeta) causes Ca2+ oscillations and the activation of development in mouse eggs. The PLCζ protein that is expressed in eggs after injection of cRNA is effective in causing Ca2+ oscillations at very low concentrations. In order to measu ...
To study protein function in cellular signaling, manual microinjection is a direct technique, but limited by the small size of many cells. The giant vertebrate cell, the Xenopus laevis oocyte, is a perfect model system to perform these studies. Oocytes are numerous and synchronous cells, arre ...
The 14-3-3 intracellular phosphoserine/threonine-binding proteins are adapter molecules that regulate signal transduction, cell cycle, nutrient sensing, apoptotic, and cytoskeletal pathways. There are seven 14-3-3 family members, encoded by separate genes, in vertebra ...
The starfish oocyte has proven useful for studies involving microinjection because it is relatively large (190μm) and optically clear. These oocytes are easily obtained from the ovary arrested at prophase of meiosis I, making them useful as a model system for the study of cell cycle-related ev ...
The zebrafish oocyte differs substantially from the zygote and cleavage-stage embryo with regard to the ease with which it can be microinjected with proteins or reagents that modify subsequent development. The objective of this chapter is to describe methods developed in this and other la ...
A major goal in cell biology is to understand the molecular mechanisms of the biological process under study, which requires functional information about the roles of individual proteins in the cell. For many non-genetic model organisms researchers have relied on the use of inhibitory rea ...
Bacteriophage φC31 inserts its genome into that of its host bacterium via the integrase enzyme which catalyzes recombination between a phage attachment site (attP) and a bacterial attachment site (attB). Integrase requires no accessory factors, has a high efficiency of recombinatio ...
Gene transfer methods for producing recombinant cell lines are often not very efficient. One reason is that the recombinant DNA is delivered into the cell cytoplasm and only a small fraction reaches the nucleus. This chapter describes a method for microinjecting DNA directly into the nucleu ...
Our laboratory has focused on the re-engineered of the secretory pathway of Pichia pastoris to perform glycosylation reactions that mimic processing of N-glycans in humans and other higher mammals (1,2). A reporter protein with a single N-linked glycosylation site, a His-tagged Kringle 3 d ...
Because of the cost of isotopic chemicals and heterologous proteins to produce, an economical 15N/13C isotopic labeling method is critically needed. Four protocols have been tested for the expression of Ovine interferon-τ in Pichia pastoris. 13C-glucose in place of 13C-glycerol as well ...
Selenomethionine incorporation is a standard method for determining the phases in protein crystallography by single- or multiwavelength anomalous dispersion. Recombinant expression of selenomethionine-containing protein in non-auxotrophic Pichia pastoris str ...
Labeling proteins with stable isotopes is important for many analytical and structural techniques, including NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. Nonselective labeling, which uniformly labels all amino acids in the protein, may be accomplished with readily available wild ...
A significant advantage of Pichia pastoris as an experimental system is the ability to readily bring to bear both classical and molecular genetic approaches to a research problem. Although the advent of yeast molecular genetics has introduced new and exciting capabilities, classical g ...