Building knowledge: Chinese scholar Science's latest article, developing new chromosome editing technology to create new karyotype mice

On August 26, 2022, Science magazine published a research paper titled A sustainable mouse karyotype created by programmed chromosome fusion, which was jointly completed by the team of Researcher Li Wei and Researcher Zhou Qi from the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Institute of Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine.

Chromosome is the main carrier of genetic material DNA, and its composition and morphological characteristics in cells are called karyotype (karyotype)

In this study, using mouse haploid stem cells and gene editing tools, a programmable connection technology of mammalian chromosomes was established.

On this basis, the researchers further investigated the biological impact of specific chromosomal rearrangement junctions

To answer the effects of specific chromosomal rearrangements on the animal phenotype, the researchers obtained chromosomally linked mice by injecting haploid stem cells into oocytes

Finally, the researchers also comprehensively analyzed the change trend of chromosome spatial structure in embryonic stem cells, neural stem cells and brain, and found that with the progress of differentiation, the changes in the spatial structure of chromosomes weakened with differentiation

This study establishes for the first time a new technology of programmable connection of complete chromosomes in mammals, realizes the editing of very large-scale genomes, and adds new research tools to mammalian synthetic biology

Postdoctoral researcher Wang Libin, associate researcher Li Zhikun, postdoctoral researcher Wang Leyun, postdoctoral researcher Xu Kai and doctoral student Ji Tiantian are the co-first authors of this paper

Schematic diagram of chromosome connection and FISH test results

Chromosome-connected mouse "Xiaozhu" has a unique karyotype

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