Abstract
BrdU is a thymidine analog that is incorporated into DNA during the S-phase of the cell cycle. BrdU incorporation can be used to quantify the number of cells that are in S-phase in the time period that BrdU is available. Thus, BrdU incorporation is an essential method in the quantitative analysis of cell proliferation, during normal embryonic development or after experimental manipulation. It is a reliable and versatile method that can be easily combined with immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization to relate cell proliferation with gene expression. BrdU incorporation has been used in all model organisms; here, we describe a protocol adapted for use in Xenopus embryos.
The authors Hélène Auger and Raphaël Thuret contributed equally
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Taupin P (2007) BrdU immunohistochemistry for studying adult neurogenesis: paradigms, pitfalls, limitations, and validation. Brain Res Rev 53:198–214
Nowakowski RS, Lewin SB, Miller MW (1989) Bromodeoxyuridine immunohistochemical determination of the lengths of the cell cycle and the DNA-synthetic phase for an anatomically defined population. J Neurocytol 18:311–318
Chapouton P, Adolf B, Leucht C, Tannhauser B, Ryu S, Driever W, Bally-Cuif L (2006) her5 expression reveals a pool of neural stem cells in the adult zebrafish midbrain. Development 133:4293–4303
Calegari F, Haubensak W, Haffner C, Huttner WB (2005) Selective lengthening of the cell cycle in the neurogenic subpopulation of neural progenitor cells during mouse brain development. J Neurosci 25:6533–6538
Salomoni P, Calegari F (2010) Cell cycle control of mammalian neural stem cells: putting a speed limit on G1. Trends Cell Biol 20:233–243
Locker M, Agathocleous M, Amato MA, Parain K, Harris WA, Perron M (2006) Hedgehog signaling and the retina: insights into the mechanisms controlling the proliferative properties of neural precursors. Genes Dev 20:3036–3048
Arai Y, Pulvers JN, Haffner C, Schilling B, Nusslein I, Calegari F, Huttner WB (2011) Neural stem and progenitor cells shorten S-phase on commitment to neuron production. Nat Commun 2:154
Alunni A, Hermel JM, Heuze A, Bourrat F, Jamen F, Joly JS (2010) Evidence for neural stem cells in the medaka optic tectum proliferation zones. Dev Neurobiol 70:693–713
Conboy MJ, Karasov AO, Rando TA (2007) High incidence of non-random template strand segregation and asymmetric fate determination in dividing stem cells and their progeny. PLoS Biol 5:e102
Gomez-Nicola D, Valle-Argos B, Pallas-Bazarra N, Nieto-Sampedro M (2011) Interleukin-15 regulates proliferation and self-renewal of adult neural stem cells. Mol Biol Cell 22:1960–1970
Martynoga B, Morrison H, Price DJ, Mason JO (2005) Foxg1 is required for specification of ventral telencephalon and region-specific regulation of dorsal telencephalic precursor proliferation and apoptosis. Dev Biol 283:113–127
Salic A, Mitchison TJ (2008) A chemical method for fast and sensitive detection of DNA synthesis in vivo. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 105:2415–2420
Sabherwal N, Tsutsui A, Hodge S, Wei J, Chalmers AD, Papalopulu N (2009) The apicobasal polarity kinase aPKC functions as a nuclear determinant and regulates cell proliferation and fate during Xenopus primary neurogenesis. Development 136:2767–2777
Zhang C, Basta T, Jensen ED, Klymkowsky MW (2003) The beta-catenin/VegT-regulated early zygotic gene Xnr5 is a direct target of SOX3 regulation. Development 130:5609–5624
Rothenaigner I, Krecsmarik M, Hayes JA, Bahn B, Lepier A, Fortin G, Gotz M, Jagasia R, Bally-Cuif L (2011) Clonal analysis by distinct viral vectors identifies bona fide neural stem cells in the adult zebrafish telencephalon and characterizes their division properties and fate. Development 138:1459–1469
Zupanc GK, Ott R (1999) Cell proliferation after lesions in the cerebellum of adult teleost fish: time course, origin, and type of new cells produced. Exp Neurol 160:78–87
Hayes NL, Nowakowski RS (2000) Exploiting the dynamics of S-phase tracers in developing brain: interkinetic nuclear migration for cells entering versus leaving the S-phase. Dev Neurosci 22:44–55
Kiel MJ, He S, Ashkenazi R, Gentry SN, Teta M, Kushner JA, Jackson TL, Morrison SJ (2007) Haematopoietic stem cells do not asymmetrically segregate chromosomes or retain BrdU. Nature 449:238–242
Fagotto F, Brown CM (2008) Detection of nuclear beta-catenin in Xenopus embryos. Methods Mol Biol 469:363–380
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to Dr. Federico Calegari, Muriel Perron, and Morgan Locker for many useful discussions and protocols. This work was funded by a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship to NP. HA and RT are Research Associates, funded by the Wellcome Trust.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Auger, H., Thuret, R., Yakoubi, W.E., Papalopulu, N. (2012). A Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) Based Protocol for Characterizing Proliferating Progenitors in Xenopus Embryos. In: HOPPLER, S., Vize, P. (eds) Xenopus Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 917. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-992-1_26
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-61779-992-1_26
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ
Print ISBN: 978-1-61779-991-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-61779-992-1
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols