Combined Expertise Enables Rapid Construction of Gene-specific Mutant Mouse Models

JAX® NOTES Issue 506, Summer 2007

You can now study gene function by taking advantage of the combined expertise of Ingenium Pharmaceuticals' INGENOtyping technology and JAX® Sperm Cryopreservation and Recovery Service. Recognized experts in chemical mutagenesis, Ingenium has produced a cryopreserved library of over 16,000 lines of mutant mouse sperm, each line containing approximately 20 mutations in gene coding regions. An average of 10 alleles, each with a unique point mutation, is available for each gene in the library. The cryopreserved sperm can be used to produce gene-specific mutant mouse models or a complete allelic series for studying gene function (Augustin et al. 2005; Grosse et al. 2006; Alavi et al. 2007; Davies et al. 2007).

Producing your gene-specific mutant is easy. Ingenium screens its library for a sperm line with a mutation in your gene of interest. Once the appropriate line is identified, Ingenium ships frozen sperm from that line to us, and JAX® Sperm Cryopreservation & Recovery Service recovers the sperm and produces your gene-specific mutant in less than three months.

In addition to producing your mouse model in record time, JAX® Services offers you a cost-effective suite of services to support your research with the model:

  • JAX® Breeding Services to develop and maintain a supply of your mice to ship to you as needed;
  • JAX® Speed Congenic Development Services to rapidly move the mutation onto a different genetic background strain; and
  • JAX® Sperm Cryopreservation and Recovery Service (JAX® NOTES, 2006), to cryopreserve and protect your new model cost-effectively and to ensure your ability to use our IVF-based JAX® Speed Expansion Services to recover and rapidly re-build a colony of your mouse model within three months.

For more information on Ingenium's exciting INGENOtyping technology, visit the Ingenium web site or e-mail business@ingenium-ag.com.

For more information on the cost-effective and practical suite of JAX® Services, visit our Web site, call 800-422-MICE (6423) (International: +1-207-288-6294), or e-mail jaxservices@jax.org.

References

Alavi MV, et al. 2007. A splice site mutation in the murine Opa1 gene features pathology of autosomal dominant optic atrophy. Brain 130 (Pt 4): 1029-42.

Augustin M, et al. 2005. Efficient and fast targeted production of murine models based on ENU mutagenesis. Mamm Genome 16:405-13.

Davies VJ, et al. 2007. Opa1 deficiency in a mouse model of Autosomal Dominant Optic Atrophy impairs mitochondrial morphology, optic nerve structure and visual function. Hum Mol Genet Apr 11: (Epub ahead of print).

Grosse J, et al. 2006. N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea-based generation of mouse models for mutant G protein-coupled receptors. Physiol Genomics 26:209-17.

JAX® NOTES 2006. Reliable New Sperm Cryo Service Developed at The Jackson Laboratory. JAX® NOTES 504:1-2.