Abstract
Xenopus laevis, the South African clawed toad, is a popular animal for research into oogenesis and embryogenesis. The large oocytes and eggs of Xenopus can be microinjected easily and many early experiments focussed on introducing first nuclei, and later DNA, RNA, and protein into these living ‘test tubes’. The results of these experiments, many of them initiated in the laboratories of J. B. Gurdon and D. D. Brown, have vastly increased our understanding of replication, transcription, and translation of eukaryotes. These studies have led to the discovery of DNA amplification, the isolation and sequencing of the first eukaryotic gene and transcription factor, in vitro transcription, chromatin assembly, and replication. The rapid development of Xenopus embryos, following fertilization in vitro, also provides a simple vertebrate system in which the molecular mechanisms responsible for causing the differentiation of the egg into an animal can be determined.
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Wolffe, A.P. (1992). The Developmental Regulation of the Genes Coding for 5S Ribosomal RNA in Xenopus laevis . In: Development. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77043-2_26
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-77043-2_26
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