title: Intraovarian transplantation of stage I-II follicles results in viable zebrafish embryos.
abstract: Maternal gene products drive early embryogenesis almost exclusively until the mid blastula transition (MBT) in many animal models including fish. However, the maternal contribution to embryogenesis does not stop at MBT, but continues to be an essential regulator of key developmental processes. The extent to which maternal effects contribute to embryonic and larval development is hard to estimate due to the technical difficulty of interfering with maternal gene products by conventional forward and reverse genetic tools. Therefore, novel methods to manipulate maternal factors in oocytes need to be developed. Here, we provide a proof of principle protocol for transplanting stage I-II zebrafish follicles into recipient mothers where donor stage I oocytes can develop to stage IV in 2 weeks and in 3 weeks they develop into mature eggs and produce viable offspring. Moreover, we show that simple microinjection of stage I-II follicles with RNA results in reporter gene expression in oocytes and paves the way for developing tools for interfering with maternal gene activity. This early stage oocyte transplantation protocol provides a means to study cellular and molecular aspects of oocyte development in the zebrafish.
authors.affiliation: Department of Fish Culture, Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Szent István University, Gödöllo, Hungary.
authors.forename: Zsolt
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Csenki
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zaucker
authors.forename: Balázs
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kovács
authors.forename: Yavor
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hadzhiev
authors.forename: Arpád
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hegyi
authors.forename: Katalin-Kinga
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Lefler
authors.forename: Tamás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kovács
authors.forename: Béla
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Urbányi
authors.forename: László
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Váradi
authors.forename: Ferenc
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Müller
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D036703:Blastula / Q000378:metabolism; D004625:Embryo, Nonmammalian / Q000378:metabolism*; D047108:Embryonic Development / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D015870:Gene Expression; D023421:Models, Animal; D009865:Oocytes / Q000378:metabolism; D009866:Oogenesis / Q000235:genetics; D006080:Ovarian Follicle / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000637:transplantation*; D015027:Zebrafish / Q000196:embryology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*