The European Xenopus Resource Centre

Xenopus are key model organisms for research in cell and developmental biology and biochemistry (12474 publications since 2008). Gene editing has allowed efficient site-directed mutation and knock out production in Xenopus so they are also becoming widely used models to study genetic diseases. The EXRC distributes 2500-3500 resources annually to around 200 laboratories that use Xenopus worldwide, but concentrated in the UK and mainland Europe. A combination of molecular resources (activity funded by BBSRC) and animal-based resources (funded by WT) are sent out to users. The latter includes wild-type and inbred strains of Xenopus, properly characterised transgenic and mutant lines, oocytes, embryos, tadpoles and egg extracts. The centre also makes transgenic and mutant lines, acts as a research hotel and provides the HO amphibian training module. In the next grant period we propose to continue these activities and to supply egg extracts from transgenic lines that have sub cellular components labelled, to use CRISPR/Cas to label cell types that have been unsuccessfully targeted using traditional transgenesis methods, to make more signalling readout lines and, exceptionally, to provide a full cost service for researchers unable to come to use the research hotel but who need to use Xenopus for specific experiments.