Medical Journals

Avian Genetic Resource Banking: Can Fish Embryos Yield Any Clues for Bird Embryos?

Authors:
  • Hagedorn M

From: Department of Reproductive Sciences, Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Washington, DC 20008, USA. hagedornm@si.edu

Poultry science

  • Publish Date: Feb 2006
  • ISSN: 0032-5791
  • Volume: 85
  • Issue: 2
  • Pages: 251-4
  • Medium: Print
  • Language: English
  • Citation (JAMA): Hagedorn M, et al. Avian Genetic Resource Banking: Can Fish Embryos Yield Any Clues for Bird Embryos?. Poult. Sci. Feb 2006;85:251-4

Abstract

Cryopreservation of avian germplasm is becoming better understood and more commonly practiced. However, one area that would be of great benefit for genome resource banking is the preservation of avian embryos. Little is know about the cryobiology of avian embryos, and they have never been successfully cryopreserved. However, it is likely that they share many of the challenges of other yolk-filled multicompartmental embryos. For example, the fish embryo has 1) a large overall size, resulting in a low surface-to-volume ratio, which retards water and cryoprotectant efflux/influx; 2) large-sized cells, such as the yolk, which could increase the likelihood of membrane disruption by intracellular ice formation; 3) compartments, such as the blastoderm and yolk, with differing permeability properties; and 4) susceptibility to chilling injury. Both the avian and fish systems share many physical and anatomical properties, and it is predicted that some of the same permeability barriers would exist in both as well. Although the systems are similar, some of the goals, and thus the practices, to protect the genome may be quite different. One of these major goals in avian developmental biology is to produce chicken:chicken transgenic animals, especially those with germ line transmission. Producing efficient germ line transmissions and being able to cryopreserve these transmissions would be extremely beneficial to both basic and agricultural science. This could be accomplished through the cryopreservation of embryonic gonadal tissue followed by grafting into a host. The gonadal/tail-graft system would provide an advantage for cryopreservation because it is small (in comparison with the whole embryo), has fairly uniform tissue, and contains the essential primordial germ line cells capable of recreating the genetic line of interest. Moreover, because the chicken is such a robust model for most other avian species, the cryopreservation of the gonadal/tail-graft may potentially open up similar treatments for other commercially important species.

Mesh Headings (Keywords): Animals, Animals, Genetically Modified, Birds, Chick Embryo, Chickens, Cryopreservation, Female, Fishes, Gonads, Male, Tissue Banks


Check for Full Text / PubMed Unique Identifier (PMID): 16523623


This abstract is part of PubMed, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. PubMed includes more than 17 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles. See Copyright and Disclaimers.

Linked medical terms appearing on this page are added by Healia to help readers find more information and are not part of the original PubMed document.

The data herein was last updated on July 8th, 2008 and may not reflect the most current and accurate data available from NLM.


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