A research team consisting of team leader Hiroshi Kiyonari, technical staff member Mari Kaneko, and others of the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research has succeeded in genetically modifying marsupials for the first time. They were able to clarify, at the level of gene function, the long-standing mystery of marsupial developmental mechanisms, as well as the unique characteristics of marsupials not found in placental mammals such as humans. Their findings have contributed to fundamental biological research on marsupials and to the understanding of the evolution and diversity of mammals.
The research team has developed a series of basic technologies that are indispensable for the production of genetically modified animals of the gray short-tailed opossum, which is a relatively easy-to-breed marsupial. By using the CRISPR/Cas9 system genome editing technology, they succeeded in producing genetically modified marsupials. They were also able to confirm that the genes that they modified were successfully passed on to the offspring of the modified individuals. Their findings were published in the online version of the journal Current Biology.
Top: a mosaic (mixed-color) individual in which some cells do not produce pigment compounds. Bottom: an opossum with no change in coat color but with a mutation in one Tyr gene on one of its two copies of chromosome 4.
Credit: RIKEN
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