Embryo at the neurula stage, with tracer localization (green) and pigment loss on the right side of the developing embryo. (Bottom) A more developed embryo, also displaying tracer localization and pigment loss on its right side. VANJA KRNETA-STANKIC
A single frog can come with only half its colors. At a workshop on the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) and CRISPR applications at the MD Anderson Cancer Center UTHealth Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, researchers used single-guide RNAs (sgRNAs) to alter pigment genes in the embryos of the amphibian. The scientists injected slc45a2-sgRNA, Cas9 protein and Alexa 488:dextran tracer into one cell of a two-cell embryo. The treatment resulted in half of the embryo lacking pigment. The researchers describe the procedure they used in a study published in February in Genetics.
B. Delay et al., “Tissue-specific gene inactivation in Xenopus laevis: knockout of Ihx1 in the kidney with CRISPR/Cas9,” Genetics, doi:10.1534/genetics.117.300468, 2018.
Correction (May 18): An earlier version of this article erroneously referred to ...
