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Hereditas(Beijing) ›› 2021, Vol. 43 ›› Issue (3): 280-288.doi: 10.16288/j.yczz.20-212

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Optimization of transfection conditions of chicken primordial germ cells

Xian Zou1(), Yanhua He1, Jingyi He1, Yan Wang1, Dingming Shu1(), Chenglong Luo1()   

  1. 1 State Key Laboratory of Livestock and Poultry Breeding & Guangdong Key Laboratory of Animal Breeding and Nutrition, Institute of Animal Science, Guangdong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China
  • Received:2020-07-07 Online:2021-03-16 Published:2021-01-29
  • Supported by:
    the National Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province(2018B030311044);the Science and Technology Program of Guangdong Province(2017B020232003);the Science and Technology Program of Guangdong Province(2019A050505007);2020 Provincial Modern Agricultural Science and Technology Alliance Construction of Common Key Technology Innovation Team Project(2020KJ106);the Earmarked Fund for Modern Agro-Industry Technology Research System(CARS-41);Special Fund for Scientific Innovation Strategy-construction of High Level Academy of Agriculture Science(R2017PY-QY007)

Abstract:

To improve the transfection efficiency of chicken primordial germ cells (PGCs), the present study evaluated the plasmid dosage and cell number on the efficiencies of three transfection reagents (Lipofectamine 2000, 3000 and LTX & Plus Reagent). PGCs was isolated from embryonic gonads of Huiyang bearded chicken. After 60 days of culture in vitro, the cells were transfected by using Lipofectamine transfection reagents with piggyBac vectors coding for the green fluorescence protein (GFP). PGCs were passaged in culture and fluorescent cells were screened and selected by flow cytometry at three days after transfection. At three weeks post transfection, about 2000 cells were injected into the stage 16 Hamburger and Hamilton (HH) embryos and incubated until stage 30 HH. The results showed that Lipofectamine 3000 was the best for transfection of PGCs. The highest transfection efficiency of PGCs could be achieved with a combination of 3 μg plasmid, 4 μL Lipofectamine 3000 transfection reagent and 0.5×10 4PGCs cells. Flow cytometry analysis showed a 23.4% efficiency of stable transfection of PGCs using Lipofectamine 3000 with piggyBac vector, which was improved 2 times or more over current commonly used methods. After reinjecting PGCs into recipient chicken embryos, GFP-positive cells were observed in the gonads of the recipient chicken embryo by fluorescence microscopy. The study comprehensively evaluated the factors of transfection reagents, plasmid dosage and cell number to optimize the transfection of PGCs, thereby providing a foundation for the efficient preparation of transgenic and gene-edited chickens.

Key words: chicken, primordial germ cells, stable transfection, Lipofectamine