Genome editing and animal models

Abstract

Although the laboratory rabbit has long contributed to many paradigmatic studies in biology and medicine, it is often considered to be a "classical animal model" because in the last 30 years, the laboratory mouse has been more often used, thanks to the availability of embryonic stem cells that have allowed the generation of gene knockout (KO) animals. However, recent genome-editing strategies have changed this unrivaled condition; so far, more than 10 mammalian species have been added to the list of KO animals. Among them, the rabbit has distinct advantages for application of genome-editing systems, such as easy application of superovulation, consistency with fertile natural mating, well-optimized embryo manipulation techniques, and the short gestation period. The rabbit has now returned to the stage of advanced biomedical research.

Generating mouse models for biomedical research: technological advances

“…Soon after the first description of the PITT technology, another group reported a similar approach using the PhiC31 integrase and attP/B system, which correspond to the landing pad components and donor plasmid elements (Tasic et al, 2011). This modified method to achieve targeted transgenesis was named Targatt™ (Chen-Tsai et al, 2014). The main advantages of the various targeted transgenesis methods that use either Cre - l oxP recombination or PhiC31 - attP/B integration, are that: (i) they overcome the problems associated with random transgene insertion, such as fragmented insertion of the transgenes, multicopy insertions, transgene silencing or interference in the expression of the endogenously disrupted gene; and (ii) they resolve the time and cost limitations associated with ES-cell-based approaches by targeting DNA cassettes to specific sites in the genome.…”

From Chinese Science Bulletin to Science Bulletin: celebrate the coming 50th birthday

“…Over the past decade, efficient genome editing has been developed for a wide range of experimental systems ranging from plants to animals. A review from Prof. Jiarui Wu provided an overview of the current existing methods for making targeted transgenic mouse models [96]. Invited by the Editorial Office, Prof. Jiankang Zhu's laboratory published their detailed procedure for CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing in Arabidopsis thaliana in Science Bulletin in 2015 [97].…”