title: Using Xenopus to understand human disease and developmental disorders.
abstract: Model animals are crucial to biomedical research. Among the commonly used model animals, the amphibian, Xenopus, has had tremendous impact because of its unique experimental advantages, cost effectiveness, and close evolutionary relationship with mammals as a tetrapod. Over the past 50 years, the use of Xenopus has made possible many fundamental contributions to biomedicine, and it is a cornerstone of research in cell biology, developmental biology, evolutionary biology, immunology, molecular biology, neurobiology, and physiology. The prospects for Xenopus as an experimental system are excellent: Xenopus is uniquely well-suited for many contemporary approaches used to study fundamental biological and disease mechanisms. Moreover, recent advances in high throughput DNA sequencing, genome editing, proteomics, and pharmacological screening are easily applicable in Xenopus, enabling rapid functional genomics and human disease modeling at a systems level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, Texas.
authors.forename: Amy K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Sater
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy and Regenerative Biology, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, District of Columbia.
authors.forename: Sally A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Moody
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; D000072669:Gene Editing; D023281:Genomics; D006801:Humans; D008322:Mammals; D040901:Proteomics; D014981:Xenopus / Q000235:genetics*
keywords: Xenopus; embryo; genome; human disease; model system