1. Genetics and Genomics

Transgenesis and web resources in quail

  1. Olivier Serralbo  Is a corresponding author
  2. David Salgado
  3. Nadège Véron
  4. Caitlin Cooper
  5. Marie-Julie Dejardin
  6. Timothy Doran
  7. Jérome Gros  Is a corresponding author
  8. Christophe Marcelle  Is a corresponding author
  1. Monash University, Australia
  2. Aix Marseille University, France
  3. CSIRO Health & Biosecurity, Australia
  4. University of Lyon 1 UCBL, France
  5. Pasteur Institute, CNRS UMR3738, France
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56312
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Cite this article
  1. Olivier Serralbo
  2. David Salgado
  3. Nadège Véron
  4. Caitlin Cooper
  5. Marie-Julie Dejardin
  6. Timothy Doran
  7. Jérome Gros
  8. Christophe Marcelle
(2020)
Transgenesis and web resources in quail
eLife 9:e56312.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56312
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Abstract

Due to its amenability to manipulations, to live observation and its striking similarities to mammals, the chicken embryo has been one of the major animal models in biomedical research. Although it is technically possible to genome-edit the chicken, its long generation time (6 months to sexual maturity) makes it an impractical lab model and has prevented it widespread use in research. The Japanese quail (Coturnix coturnix japonica) is an attractive alternative, very similar to the chicken, but with the decisive asset of a much shorter generation time (1.5 months). In recent years, transgenic quail lines have been described. Most of them were generated using replication-deficient lentiviruses, a technique that presents diverse limitations. Here, we introduce a novel technology to perform transgenesis in quail, based on the in vivo transfection of plasmids in circulating Primordial Germ Cells (PGCs). This technique is simple, efficient and allows using the infinite variety of genome engineering approaches developed in other models. Furthermore, we present a website centralizing quail genomic and technological information to facilitate the design of genome-editing strategies, showcase the past and future transgenic quail lines and foster collaborative work within the avian community.

Data availability

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in the manuscript and supporting files

Article and author information

Author details

  1. Olivier Serralbo

    Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
    For correspondence
    olivier.serralbo@monash.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0003-0808-3464

  2. David Salgado

    INSERM, MMG, U1251, Aix Marseille University, Marseille, France
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  3. Nadège Véron

    Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  4. Caitlin Cooper

    Australian Animal Health Laboratory, CSIRO Health & Biosecurity, Geelong, Australia
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  5. Marie-Julie Dejardin

    NeuroMyoGene Institute, University of Lyon 1 UCBL, Lyon, France
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  6. Timothy Doran

    Australian Animal Health Laboratory, CSIRO Health & Biosecurity, Geelong, Australia
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  7. Jérome Gros

    Department of Developmental and Stem Cell Biology, Pasteur Institute, CNRS UMR3738, Paris, France
    For correspondence
    jgros@pasteur.fr
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

  8. Christophe Marcelle

    Australian Regenerative Medicine Institute, Monash University, Clayton, Australia
    For correspondence
    christophe.marcelle@monash.edu
    Competing interests
    The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
    ORCID icon "This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-9612-7609

Funding

AFM-Téléthon (Research grant)

  • Christophe Marcelle

Stem Cells Australia (Research grant)

  • Olivier Serralbo

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All procedures were approved by a Monash University Animal Ethics Committee (ERM ID 15002, ERM ID 18809) in accordance with the Australian Code for the Care and Use of Animals for Scientific Purposes (8th Edition, 2013).

Copyright

© 2020, Serralbo et al.

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.

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  1. Olivier Serralbo
  2. David Salgado
  3. Nadège Véron
  4. Caitlin Cooper
  5. Marie-Julie Dejardin
  6. Timothy Doran
  7. Jérome Gros
  8. Christophe Marcelle
(2020)
Transgenesis and web resources in quail
eLife 9:e56312.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56312

Share this article

https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.56312

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Further reading

    1. Developmental Biology

    Transgenic quails reveal dynamic TCF/β-catenin signaling during avian embryonic development

    Hila Barzilai-Tutsch, Valerie Morin ... Olivier Serralbo
    Research Advance Updated

    The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway is highly conserved throughout evolution, playing crucial roles in several developmental and pathological processes. Wnt ligands can act at a considerable distance from their sources and it is therefore necessary to examine not only the Wnt-producing but also the Wnt-receiving cells and tissues to fully appreciate the many functions of this pathway. To monitor Wnt activity, multiple tools have been designed which consist of multimerized Wnt signaling response elements (TCF/LEF binding sites) driving the expression of fluorescent reporter proteins (e.g. GFP, RFP) or of LacZ. The high stability of those reporters leads to a considerable accumulation in cells activating the pathway, thereby making them easily detectable. However, this makes them unsuitable to follow temporal changes of the pathway’s activity during dynamic biological events. Even though fluorescent transcriptional reporters can be destabilized to shorten their half-lives, this dramatically reduces signal intensities, particularly when applied in vivo. To alleviate these issues, we developed two transgenic quail lines in which high copy number (12× or 16×) of the TCF/LEF binding sites drive the expression of destabilized GFP variants. Translational enhancer sequences derived from viral mRNAs were used to increase signal intensity and specificity. This resulted in transgenic lines efficient for the characterization of TCF/β-catenin transcriptional dynamic activities during embryogenesis, including using in vivo imaging. Our analyses demonstrate the use of this transcriptional reporter to unveil novel aspects of Wnt signaling, thus opening new routes of investigation into the role of this pathway during amniote embryonic development.