Effect the Host and Donor Genotype on Production of Twin Mice by Tetraploid Complementation Technology

Twin mice produced by tetraploid complementation method are identical on both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA level. In our experiment aggregation chimeras were produced for the purpose of creation twin mice with tetraploid complementation technology. This method could be a valuable tool both in biomedical and in agricultural applications. The host tetraploid embryos were produced by electrofusion. In the first part of the work we set up the optimal fusion parameters and we investigated which could be the best strain for tetraploid embryo production. We used C57BL/6, C57BL/6 albino and CD1 genotype embryos. Later we investigated the effect of host (CD1, C57BL/6 albino) and donor (CD1/EGFP, C57BL/6) embryo genotype regarding to the number of the living newborns. Four-cell stage tetraploid CD1 and C57BL/6 albino mouse embryos were aggregated with 2 or 4 blastomeres derived from the same CD1/EGFP or C57Bl/6 genotype eight-cell stage embryo. We found that the CD1/EGFP genotype mouse embryos are the best as donor embryos. According to the results of the electrofusion experiments, the CD1 genotype mouse embryos proved to be the more suitable as host embryos.