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XENOPUS LAEVIS: A CULTURING AND REARING PROTOCOL
Citation:
Nessa, D. E., G E. Elonen, AND G W. Holcombe. XENOPUS LAEVIS: A CULTURING AND REARING PROTOCOL. Presented at SOT and SETAC Regional Meeting, Duluth, MN, May 9-10, 2004.
Description:
Xenopus laevis are used extensively here at MED-Duluth as a model for assessing development toxicity to xenobiotics. As a result, a culturing system has been developed that provides eggs and tadpoles of consistent high quality for use by researchers at the facility. The methods maximize frog productivity and minimize culturing effort. A water delivery system incorporates the addition of calcium and magnesium ions to enhance the viability of the culture. A holding area maintains specific stocking densities foradult organisms. There is a breeding plan which regularly cycles adults through a hormone injection schedule, providing high quality eggs. Methods have been developed to ease handling, and a tadpole grow out area with calculated feeding amounts and population densities gives the anticipated developmental staging required by the researchers. A system of QA/QC procedures has been developed to identify each individual adult and thus track the health of both the broodstock as well as the viability of the eggs and tadpoles produced.