ABSTRACT
The power of Xenopus as an experimental model system has been significantly expanded by the development of methods that allow generation of stable and heritable genomic modifications, including the ability to produce non-mosaic transgenic lines and, more recently, targeted mutations. Since the advent of effective transgenic techniques in 1996, hundreds of increasingly sophisticated lines have been generated, labeling specific cells, allowing targeted ‘omics analyses, reading out molecular events such as signaling, and enabling highly controlled gain-of-function studies. Classical genetic approaches in the diploid X. tropicalis were just becoming established when sequencing capacity, computational biology, and rapid gene editing combined to rewrite the methodology of developmental genetics. Xenopus has subsequently proved an exceptional organism in terms of the effectiveness of gene editing and high-quality phenotypic data that are consistently obtained from F0 animals. Recent reports show that precise changes can also be made to the Xenopus genome, offering for the first time the opportunity for relatively high-throughput developmental and cellular biology genetic studies together with diagnosis and modeling of human genetic diseases. Bringing efficient genetics to the already remarkable experimental toolbox of Xenopus ensures the continuation of the exceptional track record of these model organisms.
