The developmental mutants of Xenopus. 1992

A Droin
Department of Zoology and Animal Biology, University of Geneva, Switzerland.

The 32 developmental mutants found in our laboratory have appeared in the course of the genetic analysis of adult Xenopus laevis issued from nuclear transfers, and of their progeny. These experiments originally were devised more than thirty years ago to test whether somatic nuclei had undergone irreversible changes during differentiation or whether they had remained totipotent. In the majority of cases, the mutations were carried by wild-caught imported frogs or their laboratory-bred progeny; however, the precise origin of several mutations has not been determined. The mutants have been subdivided into three classes: Maternal effect mutants. Three such mutants have been found; they affect the development of all the embryos from homozygous mothers independently of the genotype of the father. Developmental lethals. This class comprises 19 mutants, among which are included the previously called "autonomous lethals" caused by general metabolic defects that affect all parts of the embryos as well as the tissue- and organ-specific lethals, in several of which death occurs as a direct consequence of the anomalies. Developmental non-lethals. These are 10 mutants, suffering from specific defects not essential for survival. In addition, nucleolar mutants as well as mutants found in different species of Xenopus and mutants of Xenopus laevis found in other laboratories are also mentioned. The last part consists of an alphabetical description of the mutant phenotypes including more detailed analyses which have been carried out on several of them.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D009024 Morphogenesis The development of anatomical structures to create the form of a single- or multi-cell organism. Morphogenesis provides form changes of a part, parts, or the whole organism.
D009154 Mutation Any detectable and heritable change in the genetic material that causes a change in the GENOTYPE and which is transmitted to daughter cells and to succeeding generations. Mutations
D002466 Cell Nucleolus Within most types of eukaryotic CELL NUCLEUS, a distinct region, not delimited by a membrane, in which some species of rRNA (RNA, RIBOSOMAL) are synthesized and assembled into ribonucleoprotein subunits of ribosomes. In the nucleolus rRNA is transcribed from a nucleolar organizer, i.e., a group of tandemly repeated chromosomal genes which encode rRNA and which are transcribed by RNA polymerase I. (Singleton & Sainsbury, Dictionary of Microbiology & Molecular Biology, 2d ed) Plasmosome,Cell Nucleoli,Nucleoli, Cell,Nucleolus, Cell,Plasmosomes
D005804 Genes, Lethal Genes whose loss of function or gain of function MUTATION leads to the death of the carrier prior to maturity. They may be essential genes (GENES, ESSENTIAL) required for viability, or genes which cause a block of function of an essential gene at a time when the essential gene function is required for viability. Alleles, Lethal,Allele, Lethal,Gene, Lethal,Lethal Allele,Lethal Alleles,Lethal Gene,Lethal Genes
D000818 Animals Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA. Animal,Metazoa,Animalia
D014982 Xenopus laevis The commonest and widest ranging species of the clawed "frog" (Xenopus) in Africa. This species is used extensively in research. There is now a significant population in California derived from escaped laboratory animals. Platanna,X. laevis,Platannas,X. laevi

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