title: Stable knock-down of vomeronasal receptor genes in transgenic Xenopus tadpoles.
abstract: Xenopus V2R (xV2R), a family of G-protein-coupled receptors with seven transmembrane domains, is expressed in the Xenopus vomeronasal organ (VNO). There are six subgroups of xV2R, one of which, xV2RE, is predominantly expressed in the VNO. To understand the function of xV2R during VNO development, we developed a new method to achieve stable siRNA-suppression of the V2RE genes by introducing siRNA expression transgenes into the genomes of unfertilized eggs. We found that some of the derived transgenic tadpoles lacked VNOs and that their olfactory epithelium was fused. With the exception of one tadpole, expression of xV2RE was not detected in morphologically abnormal mutant tadpoles, although the olfactory marker protein and the olfactory receptors were expressed. These results suggest that we successfully produced transgenic tadpoles in which xV2RE expression was stably suppressed by siRNA, and that xV2RE plays a role in the morphogenesis of olfactory organs.
authors: Institute for Amphibian Biology, Graduate School of Science, Hiroshima University, 1-3-1, Kagamiyama, Higashihiroshima 739-8526, Japan. akashiwa@hiroshima-u.ac.jp
authors: Akihiko
authors: A
authors: Kashiwagi
authors: Keiko
authors: K
authors: Kashiwagi
authors: Shouichiro
authors: S
authors: Saito
authors: Atsuko
authors: A
authors: Date-Ito
authors: Masumi
authors: M
authors: Ichikawa
authors: Yuji
authors: Y
authors: Mori
authors: Kimiko
authors: K
authors: Hagino-Yamagishi