Pilot study of large-scale production of mutant pigs by ENU mutagenesis.

N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea (ENU) mutagenesis is a powerful tool to generate mutants on a large scale efficiently, and to discover genes with novel functions at the whole-genome level in flies, zebrafish and mice, but it has never been tried in large model animals. We describe a successful systematic three-generation ENU mutagenesis screening in pigs with the establishment of the Chinese Swine Mutagenesis Consortium. A total of 6,770 G1 and 6,800 G3 pigs were screened, 36 dominant and 91 recessive novel pig families with various phenotypes were established.

Phylogeography of Nanorana parkeri (Anura: Ranidae) and multiple refugia on the Tibetan Plateau revealed by mitochondrial and nuclear DNA.

Quaternary climatic changes have been recognized to influence the distribution patterns and evolutionary histories of extant organisms, but their effects on alpine species are not well understood. To investigate the Pleistocene climatic oscillations on the genetic structure of amphibians, we sequenced one mitochondrial and three nuclear DNA fragments in Nanorana parkeri, a frog endemic to the Tibetan Plateau, across its distribution range in the southern plateau. Mitochondrial cytochrome b (Cytb) and three nuclear genes (c-Myc2, Rhod, and Tyr) revealed two distinct lineages (i.

Real-time dynamic optical imaging of ACC-M tumor cells killed by HSV-tk/ACV system.

HSV-tk/ACV induced and killed human adenoid cystic carcinoma cell (ACC-M) in vivo and in vitro, which were observed through optical imaging and green fluorescence protein (GFP) tagging technique. ACC-M was transfected with TK-GFP, and the single clone cell ACC-M-TK-GFP was selected by G418. With fluorescent stereomicroscope, whole-body fluorescent imaging system and fluorescent microscope, we could observe ACV treated ACC-M-TK-GFP cells in cell level and nude mice.

In vivo monitoring the process of tumor growth, metastasis and bacterial infection expressing GFP via real-time optical imaging.

Noninvasive molecular fluorescence imaging in vivo which combines Optical imaging with genetic marker technology can real time monitor the development of tumor, through the use of human adenoid cystic carcinoma cell (ACC-M) and lung carcinoma cells SPC-A1 were thansfected by green fluorescent protein (GFP). This study established three types of model: Experimental metastases by tail vein injection of ACC-M-EGFP, spontaneous metastases by abdomen subcutaneous injection of SPC-A1-EGFP and subcutaneous tumor growth by subcutaneous injection of SPC-A1-EGFP. Tumor-bearing mice were viewed with whole-body fluorescent imaging system.