Sleeping Beauty Mutants Updated (December 2008)

• Generation and phenotyping of gene knockout rats on the F344 inbred strain using the Sleeping Beauty transposon strategy is ongoing. We have surveyed more than 1300 rats and have identified several new knock-outs (KOs). For additional information about the Sleeping Beauty Transposon mutants, please contact Aron Geurts, Ph.D. (ageurts@mcw.edu), Director of the Sleeping Beauty Transponson KO Component.
• For a current list of available mutants, please visit the Knock Out Rat Consortium
• A primer describing the sleeping beauty strategy can be found here.
• A video describing the Sleeping Beauty Mutants in more detail can be found here

ENU Mutant data (December 2008)

• New phenotyping data is available for FHH-Htr1a^m1Mcwi (5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin) receptor 1A). In addition, many additional measurements have been posted for many other ENU mutant strains.
• We have generated 103 mutant strains to date, including 9 that generate premature stop codons or deletions and 32 nonsynonymous mutations predicted to disrupt gene function. For a current list of mutant strains, please contact Mindy Dwinell, Ph.D. (mrdwinel@mcw.edu).

KO Rats: PhysGen Announces the Availability of Mutant Rats

PhysGen, one of five Programs for Genomic Applications (PGA) funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute is currently generating knockout rats using an ENU (N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea) mutagenesis strategy(Click here to see gene list). Male rats were subjected to ENU and bred to healthy female rats to generate F1 heterozygous offspring. Prior to phenotypic screening, the offspring are screened by TILLING, a high-throughput method which identifies mutations by enzyme cleavage of heteroduplex PCR product formation between wild-type and mutated alleles. During the screening process, several amino acid changes were identified in targeted genes. Confirmed gene knockouts will be phenotypically characterized and data will be released on the PhysGen website.

We are pleased to make the rats with amino acid changes available to interested investigators (click here for current mutant rat list). Heterozygous mutant rats (5M/5F) will be available on a first come-first serve basis for 75 days after posting on PhysGen's website (http://pga.mcw.edu). For additional information on how to obtain these rats, please contact Melinda Dwinell at (414) 456-4498 (mrdwinel@mcw.edu). We will update the mutant list monthly. To register for updates by email, please click here.

Upcoming Events

• PGA Traveling Tutorial
  Date: April. 10-11, 2008
  Location: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
  
• Genomic Tools and Resources for Phenotype Analysis
  American Thoracic Society International Conference
  Date: May 16, 2008 (8am – 4pm)
  Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
  For Additional Information: Click here

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