Mouse models for identifying genes modulating fertility parameters

Abstract

Fertility can be defined as the natural capability of giving life. It is an important factor both for human medicine, where ,10% of the couples call for the services of assisted reproductive technologies, and for species of economic interest. In particular, in dairy cows, the recent years have seen a kind of competition between milk production and fertility, and genes improving fertility are now considered as parameters to be selected for. The study of fertility pathways is nevertheless made difficult by the strong impact of environmental factors on this parameter, as well as by the number of genes potentially involved (as shown by systematic transcriptome analysis studies in the recent years). One additional level of complexity is given by the fact that factors modulating fertility will probably be sex specific. The usage of mouse models has been one of the solutions exploited for tackling with these difficulties. Here, we review three different approaches using mice for identifying genes modulating fertility in mammals: gene invalidation, positional cloning and in vitro mutagenesis. These three approaches exploit specific characteristics of the mouse, such as the possibility of controlling precisely the environment, an excellent genetic characterization and the existence of genomic and molecular tools equalled only in humans. Many indications suggest that at least some of the results obtained in mice could be easily transposed to the species of interest.

Effects of frozen storage temperature on the elasticity of tendons from a small murine model

“…Here, we are concerned with the maximum stress, s, on the stressstrain curve, stiffness (E ), strain (e) at s, strain energy densities up to e (u) and from e until complete rupture (u p ) (Goh et al, 2005). Since the genome of the C57BL6 mouse has been sequenced, it has been regarded as an ideal murine model in the context of integrative biology study; it is widely used for laboratory experiments to illuminate basic mechanisms that could address similar outcomes in other mammals (Laissue et al, 2009). In particular, tissues from the murine model have been used extensively to evaluate biomechanical properties to study systemic changes caused by injury and during healing (Lin et al, 2004), ageing of ECM (Goh et al, 2008) and disruption of the signal pathway for regulating ECM in genetically engineered mice that produced alterations in collagen (Derwin and Soslowsky, 1999) and PGs (Derwin and Soslowsky, 1999).…”

The multisystemic functions of FOXD1 in development and disease

“…Briefly, the IRCS model was created from an initial cross between two evolutionarily distant parental species of mice (Mus musculus and Mus spretus), followed by two backcrosses involving Mus musculus which reduced the percentage donor (M. spretus) genome introgressed into the receptor's genetic background (Mus musculus) [137,139,140]. Consanguineous (brother-sister) crosses were then performed during > 30 generations to establish 53 IRCS strains, each having an average of 98% M. musculus and 2% M. spretus genomes (fixed at homozygous state).…”

Aetiological coding sequence variants in non-syndromic premature ovarian failure: From genetic linkage analysis to next generation sequencing

“…It is worth noting that QTL can be defined as chromosomal regions carrying genes (encoding and regulatory regions) which are responsible for complex, measurable phenotypes. The latter assumption was explored by studying particular mouse models allowing QTL mapping (Laissue et al, 2009b). The interspecific recombinant congenic strains (IRCS) model has been especially useful for mapping short QTL responsible for male (testis and prostate weight, sperm nucleus shape, sperm survival) and female phenotypes (embryonic lethality and resorption) (Laissue et al, 2009c;L'Hôte et al, 2007;Vatin et al, 2012).…”