Archiving genetically altered animals: a review of cryopreservation and recovery methods for genome edited animals

With the ever-expanding numbers of genetically altered (GA) animals created in this new age of CRISPR/Cas, tools for helping the management of this vast and valuable resource are essential. Cryopreservation of embryos and germplasm of GA animals has been a widely used tool for many years now, allowing for the archiving, distribution and colony management of stock. However, each year brings an array of advances, improving survival rates of embryos, success rates of in-vitro fertilisation and the ability to better share lines and refine the methods to preserve them. This article will focus on the mouse field, referencing the latest developments and assessing their efficacy and ease of implementation, with a brief note on other common genetically altered species (rat, zebrafish, Xenopus, avian species and non-human Primates).

Biological methods for archiving and maintaining mutant laboratory mice. Part II: recovery and distribution of conserved mutant strains

The mouse is now firmly established as the model organism of choice for scientists studying mammalian biology and human disease. Consequently, large collections of novel genetically altered mouse lines have been deposited in secure archives around the world. If these resources are to be of value to the scientific community, they must be easily accessible to all researchers regardless of their embryological skills or geographical location.This chapter describes how the archiving centres attempt to make the strains they hold visible and accessible to all interested parties, and also outlines the methods currently used in laboratories around the world to recover mouse strains previously archived using the methods highlighted in this manual (see Chapter 20).