Name: Video: Thawing and Transplantation of Cryopreserved Primordial Germ Cells for Drosophila Strain Revival
Uploaded: 2023-12-01T12:20:00
Duration: 1 min 40 s
Description: 340 Views. Thawing and Transplantation of Cryopreserved Primordial Germ Cells for Drosophila Strain Revival

thawing and transplantation of cryopreserved primordial germ cells for drosophila strain revival

Cryopreservation of PGCs for Long-Term Preservation of Drosophila Strains

The maintenance of Drosophila strains by the transfer of adult flies to new food vials inevitably results in the accumulation of mutations and epigenetic changes over time. Development of an alternative method for long-term maintenance of Drosophila strains without such changes is imperative, especially for reference strains in which the whole genome has to be maintained. Several successful attempts to cryopreserve Drosophila embryos or ovaries have been described1,2,3. Unfortunately, they are still not of practical use because of low reproducibility. Indeed, early-stage embryos have a low survival rate after cryopreservation because of their high yolk content, which impedes cryoprotective agent (CPA) permeation and diffusion2,3. CPA permeability is also severely limited by the waxy layers of late-stage embryos. It is difficult and time-consuming to find a strain-specific time period in which embryos have a high survival rate and a thinner wax layer. Recently, Zhan et al.4 improved methods for embryo permeabilization, CPA loading, and vitrification and successfully cryopreserved embryos of multiple strains. However, the methods are not easy to apply because the viability of embryos after permeabilization tends to be poor. Therefore, further improvement and development of alternative approaches are still needed. Methods involving the cryopreservation of primordial germ cells (PGCs) are an alternative approach for the long-term maintenance of Drosophila strains.
PGC (also called pole cell) transplantation has been used to generate germline chimeras, especially females, to study processes such as maternal effects of zygotic lethal mutations and sex determination of germ cells5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12. PGCs are much smaller than embryos and are likely to be highly permeable to most cryoprotectants. Furthermore, developmental and morphological variation among strains is less problematic, and an agametic host enables quick restoration of whole genomes. We recently developed a new method of PGC cryopreservation13, which prevents the otherwise inevitable genetic and epigenetic changes in Drosophila strains. Here, we present the detailed protocol.
This cryopreservation method requires specific expertise in PGC handling and instrumentation. While a step-by-step approach may be an efficient solution for those who are unfamiliar with it, it may be unsuitable for small laboratories due to instrumentation requirements. This PGC cryopreservation protocol can be more easily adapted for use with different Drosophila species and different insect species than embryo cryopreservation protocols because of smaller developmental and morphological differences. PGCs can also potentially be used in genetic engineering applications, such as genome editing14,15,16. In summary, this method can be used in stock centers and other laboratories to maintain fly and other insect strains for prolonged periods of time without changes.

Author Spotlight: PGC Cryopreservation &#8211; An Alternative Approach Towards Long-Term Preservation of Drosophila Strains 

Primordial Germ Cell Cryopreservation and Revival of Drosophila Strains

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Thawing and Transplantation of Cryopreserved Primordial Germ Cells for Drosophila Strain Revival at JoVE.com

Thawing and Transplantation of Cryopreserved Primordial Germ Cells for Drosophila Strain Revival  

Thawing and Transplantation of Cryopreserved Primordial Germ Cells for Drosophila Strain Revival

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Research

JoVE Journal

Genetics

340 Views. Thawing and Transplantation of Cryopreserved Primordial Germ Cells for Drosophila Strain Revival

Video: Thawing and Transplantation of Cryopreserved Primordial Germ Cells for Drosophila Strain Revival  

Drosophila strains must be maintained by the frequent transfer of adult flies to new vials. This carries a danger of mutational deterioration and phenotypic changes. Development of an alternative method for long-term preservation without such changes is therefore imperative. Despite previous successful attempts, cryopreservation of Drosophila embryos is still not of practical use because of low reproducibility. Here, we describe a protocol for primordial germ cell (PGC) cryopreservation and strain revival via transplantation of cryopreserved PGCs into agametic Drosophila melanogaster (D. melanogaster) host embryos. PGCs are highly permeable to cryoprotective agents (CPAs), and developmental and morphological variation among strains is less problematic than in embryo cryopreservation. In this method, PGCs are collected from approximately 30 donor embryos, loaded into a needle after CPA treatment, and then cryopreserved in liquid nitrogen. To produce donor-derived gametes, the cryopreserved PGCs in a needle are thawed and then deposited into approximately 15&#160;agametic host embryos. A frequency of at least 15% fertile flies was achieved with this protocol, and the number of progeny per fertile couple was always more than enough to revive the original strain (the average progeny number being 77.2 &#177; 7.1), indicating the ability of cryopreserved PGCs to become germline stem cells. The average number of fertile flies per needle was 1.1 &#177; 0.2, and 9 out of 26 needles produced two or more fertile progeny. It was found that 11 needles are enough to produce 6 or more progeny, in which at least one female and one male are likely included. The agametic host makes it possible to revive the strain quickly by simply crossing newly emerged female and male flies. In addition, PGCs have the potential to be used in genetic engineering applications, such as genome editing.

A long-term preservation method for Drosophila strains as an alternative to the frequent transfer of adult flies to fresh food vials is highly desirable. This protocol describes the cryopreservation of Drosophila primordial germ cells and strain revival via their transplantation to agametic host embryos.