Applying reproductive technologies and genome resource banking to laboratory animals

Abstract

The Genome Resource Bank (GRB) is a repository of frozen biological material, including semen and embryos. Cryobanking is often used in combination with modern reproductive technologies, such as rederivation, in vitro culture, and embryo transfer. Thirteen mouse and rat strains have been rederived, and 32 are kept in cryostorage at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Novosibirsk. Other laboratory animal species have been cryopreserved as well. Embryos of two hamster species (Djungarian and Campbell’s) of the Phodopus genus were cryopreserved, and the viability of thawed embryos was confirmed by their successful development in vitro and in vivo (by transfer to a recipient). The positive effect of the Granulocyte-Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor (GM-CSF) was demonstrated for both of these Phodopus species. Furthermore, the sperm of Djungarian (Phodopus sungorus) and Campbell’s (Phodopus campbelli) hamsters, domestic cat (Felis catusf),leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis euptilurus), and bobcat (Lynx rufus) was frozen and cryopreserved. Double staining by SYBR Green/PI, followed by confocal microscopy, demonstrated that more than 40% of amur cat semen retained their viability after cryopreservation. This is the world’s first reported successful freezing of semen of these wild feline species (Prionailurus bengalensis euptilurus). The article reviews the results and discusses the prospects of using reproductive technologies for the conservation of laboratory animal species.