Protocols
Online Xenopus Resources
- Cold Spring Harbor Protocols - Xenopus [1], 130+ articles - subscription required, select articles listed:
- Housing and Feeding of Xenopus laevis - Sive et al. [2]
- Inducing Ovulation in Xenopus laevis - Sive et al. [3]
- Xenopus laevis In Vitro Fertilization and Natural Mating Methods - Sive et al. [4]
- Egg Collection and In Vitro Fertilization of the Western Clawed Frog Xenopus tropicalis - Showell & Conlon [5]
- Isolation of Xenopus Oocytes - Sive et al. [6]
- Isolating Xenopus laevis Testes - Sive et al. [7]
- Dejellying Xenopus laevis Embryos - Sive et al. [8]
- Removing the Vitelline Membrane from Xenopus laevis Embryos - Sive et al. [9]
- Microinjection of Xenopus Embryos - Sive et al. [10]
- Defolliculation of Xenopus Oocytes - Sive et al. [11]
- Microinjection of Xenopus Oocytes - Sive et al. [12]
- Animal Cap Isolation from Xenopus laevis - Sive et al. [13]
- Xenopus laevis Keller Explants - Sive et al. [14]
- Microinjection of RNA and Preparation of Secreted Proteins from Xenopus Oocytes - Sive et al. [15]
- Calibration of the Injection Volume for Microinjection of Xenopus Oocytes and Embryos - Sive et al. [16]
- Isolation of DNA from Red Blood Cells in Xenopus - Sive et al. [17]
- Investigating Morphogenesis in Xenopus Embryos: Imaging Strategies, Processing, and Analysis - Kim & Davidson [18]
- Low-Magnification Live Imaging of Xenopus Embryos for Cell and Developmental Biology - Wallingford [19]
- High-Magnification In Vivo Imaging of Xenopus Embryos for Cell and Developmental Biology - Keiserman et al. [20]
- Preparation of Fixed Xenopus Embryos for Confocal Imaging - Wallingford [21]
- Whole-Mount Fluorescence Immunocytochemistry on Xenopus Embryos - Lee et al. [22]
- Generation of Transgenic Xenopus laevis - Kroll & Amaya - [23] [24] [25]
- In Vivo Time-Lapse Imaging of Neuronal Development in Xenopus - Ruthazer et al. [26]
- Photoconversion for Tracking the Dynamics of Cell Movement in Xenopus laevis Embryos - Chernet et al. [27]
- Single-Cell Electroporation in Xenopus - Liu & Haas [28]
- Imaging Axon Pathfinding in Xenopus In Vivo - Leung & Holt [29]
- A Versatile Protocol for mRNA Electroporation of Xenopus laevis Embryos - Chernet & Levin [30]
- The Journal of Visualized Experiments (JOVE) - Xenopus embryo [31] - excellent video demonstrations
- Obtaining Eggs from Xenopus laevis Females - Cross & Powers [32]
- Microinjection of Xenopus Laevis Oocytes - Cohen et al. - [33]
- Fertilization of Xenopus oocytes, Host Transfer Method - Schneider et al. [34]
- Tissue Determination Using Animal Cap Transplant (ACT) Assay in X. laevis - Viczian & Zuber [35]
- Blastomere Explants to Test for Cell Fate Commitment - Grant et al. [36]
- Transgenic Xenopus laevis by Restriction Enzyme Mediated Integration and Nuclear Transplantation - Amaya & Kroll [37]
- Organizer and Animal Pole Explants from X. laevis Embryos and Cell Adhesion Assay - Ogata & Cho [38]
- Plastic Embedding and Sectioning of X. laevis Embryos - Ogata1 et al. [39]
- Visualizing RNA Localization in Xenopus Oocytes - Gagnon & Mowry [40]
- Neural Explant Cultures from Xenopus laevis - Lowery et al. [41]
- Translocation of Fluorescent Proteins in Xenopus Ectoderm in Response to Wnt Signaling - Itoh & Sokol [42]
- Dissection, Culture, and Analysis of X. laevis Embryonic Retinal Tissue - McDonough et al. [43]
- X. tropicalis Egg Extracts to Identify Microtubule-associated RNAs - Sharp & Blower [44]
- Electroporation of Craniofacial Mesenchyme - Tabler & Liu [45]
- Electrophysiological Recording from Xenopus Nerve-muscle Co-cultures - Yazejian et al. [46]
- Single Cell Electroporation in vivo within the Intact Developing Brain - Hewapathirane & Haas - [47]
- Live-cell Imaging and Quantitative Analysis of Embryonic Epithelial Cells - Joshi & Davidson [48]
- Preparation and Fractionation of Xenopus laevis Egg Extracts - Cross & Powers [49]
- In Vitro Nuclear Assembly Using Fractionated Xenopus Egg Extracts - Cross & Powers [50]
- Study of the DNA Damage Checkpoint using Xenopus Egg Extracts - Willis et al. [51]
- Two Types of Assays for Detecting Frog Sperm Chemoattraction - Burnett et al. [52]
- Comparative in vivo Study of gp96 Adjuvanticity in X. laevis - Nedelkovska et al. [53]
- Patch Clamp and Perfusion Techniques - Yang et al. [54]
- Patch Clamp Recording of Ion Channels - Brown et al. [55]
- Cation Transport in Xenopus Oocytes - Dürr et al.[56]
Books for Xenopus Research and Protocols
- Normal Table of Xenopus Laevis (Daudin), Nieuwkoop and Faber (Third edition), 1994 [57]
- a systematic and chronological description of Xenopus laevis development
- Early Development of Xenopus laevis: A Laboratory Manual, Sive, Grainger, and Harland, 2000 [58]
- comprehensive collection of protocols for the study of early development in Xenopus embryos
- The Laboratory Xenopus sp., Green, 2010 [59]
- a highly detailed manual containing Xenopus husbandry, management, veterinary care, and frog and equipment vendor information
- Xenopus Protocols: Cell Biology and Signal Transduction, Liu (First edition), 2006 [60]
- step-by-step laboratory instructions, an introduction outlining the principles behind the technique, lists of the necessary equipment and reagents
- Xenopus laevis: Practical Uses in Cell and Molecular Biology, Volume 36, Kay and Peng, 1991 [61]
- detailed description of a wide range of uses for Xenopus laevis oocytes and embryos in cell and molecular biology
- Transgenic Xenopus: Microinjection Methods and Developmental Neurobiology, Seidman and Soreq, 1997 [62]
- referenced guide to the use of microinjected embryos studying the role and regulation of nervous system proteins during development
- Atlas of Xenopus Development, Bernardini, Prati, Bonetti, and Scari, 1999 [63]
- scanning, transmission, and light microscopy images of Xenopus embryonic development
- The early development of Xenopus laevis. An atlas of the histology, Hausen and Riebesell, 1991 [64]
- detailed histological sections of Xenopus embryonic development
- Color Atlas of Xenopus laevis Histology, Wiechmann and Wirsig-Wiechmann, 2003 [65]
- central source on the microscopic anatomy of cells, tissues, and major organs of Xenopus laevis
Select Protocol Sections
Animal Husbandry
- obtain frogs and frog housing equipment [66]
- Xenopus Express links [67] - Xenopus Express husbandry [68]
- Xenopus tropicalis and Xenopus laevis environmental parameter standard operating procedure (Kroll lab)
Lab Solutions and Reagents - click each to view expanded list
- culture media
- immunohistochemistry
- in situ hybridization
- fixatives
- DNA/RNA preparation
- embryo manipulation/dissection
- microinjection
- general buffers and salt solutions
Generating Embryos
- inducing egg laying via hCG injection (Vize lab)
- anesthesia, in vitro fertilization, and natural mating of Xenopus tropicalis (Conlon lab)
- benzocaine stock, 100x (Khokha lab)
- in vitro fertilization of Xenopus laevis (Conlon lab)
- high-salt solution for egg laying (Zorn lab/Ron Laskey)
- dejellying embryos (Sive et al. 2000)
- dejellying embryos (Zorn lab)
Transgenesis
- transgenesis in Xenopus laevis - adapted from Amaya et al 2001 (Conlon lab)
- tadpole tail sampling for genomic DNA (Conlon lab)
- Production of transgenic Xenopus laevis by restriction enzyme mediated integration and nuclear transplantation. Amaya E, Kroll K. J Vis Exp. 2010 Aug 21;(42). [69]
- A method for generating transgenic frog embryos. Ishibashi S, Kroll KL, Amaya E. Methods Mol Biol. 2008;461:447-66. [70]
- A method for generating transgenic frog embryos. Amaya E, Kroll KL. Methods Mol Biol. 1999;97:393-414. [71]
In Situ Hybridization
- in situ hybridization, brief version (Harland lab)
- whole-mount in situ hybridization (Conlon lab)
- fluorescent in-situs and FCIS (Vize lab)
Immunohisochemistry
- wholemount antibody staining (CSH Protocols) (Wallingford lab)
- wholemount antibody staining - alkaline phosphatase detection (Conlon lab)
- wholemount antibody staining - adapted from Dan Weeks' protocol (Conlon lab)
- immunostaining sectioned embryos (Conlon lab)
- hydrochloric acid antigen retrieval (Zorn lab)
Histology
Other Embryo Staining Protocols
- benzidine-peroxidase staining for blood (Conlon lab)
- benzidine-peroxidase staining for blood (Thomsen lab)
- apoptosis via TUNEL (Veenstra lab)
- TUNEL staining of whole Xenopus embryos - Harland protocol (Conlon lab)
Other Immuno Protocols and Protein Protocols
- immunoprecipitation (Stukenberg lab)
- immunofluorescence with biotinylated antibodies (Stukenberg lab)
- Purifying Polyclonal Antibodies using Affinity Columns/Chromatography
- Making an Affinity Column
- Running an Affinity Column
- whole embryo protein extraction with freon (Conlon lab)
- SDS-PAGE gels (Conlon lab)
- western blot protocol (Conlon lab)
- silver staining protein gels (Stukenberg lab)
Nucleic Acid Protocols
- RNA Isolation
- DNA Isolation
Oocyte Transfer Technique (Heasman/Wylie labs)
- Part 1: Choosing Oligodeoxyribonucleotides (ODNs)
- Part 2: ODN Modification
- Part 3: Host Transfer Technique
- Part 4: Fertilization and Development
Xenopus Oocyte and Egg Extracts
- crude interphase egg extract (Shechter lab)
- isolation of chromatin from egg extract and histone recovery (Shechter lab)
- preparation of cycling egg extract (Shechter lab)
- cycling extracts, mike's protocol (Stukenberg lab)
- cycling extracts, sara's protocol (Stukenberg lab)
- CSF extract, mike's protocol (Stukenberg lab)
- CSF extract, sara's protocol (Stukenberg lab)
- assaying H1 kinase in extracts (Stukenberg lab)