Abstract
The golden (Syrian) hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) is a small rodent belonging to the Cricetidae family. Golden hamsters have several unique characteristics that are advantageous in the study of reproductive and developmental biology: a highly stable 4-day estrous cycle, a high responsiveness to conventional superovulation methods, and a shortest gestation period (16 days) known among eutherian mammals. Besides these advantages, the technical ease of in vitro fertilization (IVF) and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) in this species has contributed much to our understanding of the basic mechanisms of mammalian fertilization. However, the exceptionally strong in vitro developmental block of hamster embryos, especially at the two-cell stage, has hampered the production of genetically modified hamsters, which has resulted in limited use of this species for biomedical research. However, the recently developed in vivo genome editing method (improved genome editing via oviductal nucleic acid delivery, i-GONAD) has overcome this shortcoming and made production of gene-edited hamsters much easier than before. This method has the potential to provide a means of reexamining genes whose functions cannot be identified using mouse models, thus leading to the better understanding of gene functions in mammals. In this chapter, we present our procedure for editing the genome of the golden hamster using i-GONAD.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Wang H, Yang H, Shivalila CS et al (2013) One-step generation of mice carrying mutations in multiple genes by CRISPR/Cas-mediated genome engineering. Cell 153:910–918
Li D, Qiu Z, Shao Y et al (2013) Heritable gene targeting in the mouse and rat using a CRISPR-Cas system. Nat Biotechnol 31:681–683
Li W, Teng F, Li T et al (2013) Simultaneous generation and germline transmission of multiple gene mutations in rat using CRISPR-Cas systems. Nat Biotechnol 31:684–686
Mashimo T, Kaneko T, Sakuma T et al (2013) Efficient gene targeting by TAL effector nucleases coinjected with exonucleases in zygotes. Sci Rep 3:1253
Adler S (1948) Origin of the golden hamster Cricetus auratus as a laboratory animal. Nature 162:256–257
Whittaker D (1999) Hamster. In: Poole T (ed) The UFAW handbook on the care and management of laboratory animals, vol 1, 7th edn. Blackwell Science Ltd, Oxford
Hirose M, Ogura A (2019) The golden (Syrian) hamster as a model for the study of reproductive biology: past, present, and future. Reprod Med Biol 18:34–39
Yanagimachi R, Chang MC (1963) Fertilization of hamster eggs in vitro. Nature 200:281–282
Yanagimachi R (1994) Mammalian fertilization. In: Knobil E, Neill JD (eds) The physiology of reproduction, 2nd edn. Raven Press Ltd, New York
Uehara T, Yanagimachi R (1976) Microsurgical injection of spermatozoa into hamster eggs with subsequent transformation of sperm nuclei into male pronuclei. Biol Reprod 15:467–470
Imai M, Iwatsuki-Horimoto K, Hatta M et al (2020) Syrian hamsters as a small animal model for SARS-CoV-2 infection and countermeasure development. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 117:16587–16595
Bavister BD (1987) Studies on the developmental blocks in cultured hamster embryos. In: Bavister BD (ed) The mammalian preimplantation embryo: regulation of growth and differentiation in vitro. Plenum Publishing, New York
Fan Z, Li W, Lee SR et al (2014) Efficient gene targeting in golden Syrian hamsters by the CRISPR/Cas9 system. PLoS One 9:e109755
Li R, Miao J, Fan Z et al (2018) Production of genetically engineered golden Syrian hamsters by pronuclear injection of the CRISPR/Cas9 complex. J Vis Exp 131:e56263
Guo X, Gao M, Wang Y et al (2018) EBioMedicine 27:214–224
Gao M, Yang C, Wang X et al (2020) ApoC2 deficiency elicits severe hypertriglyceridemia and spontaneous atherosclerosis: a rodent model rescued from neonatal death. Metabolism 109:154296
Takahashi G, Gurumurthy BC, Wada K et al (2015) GONAD: genome-editing via oviductal nucleic acids delivery system: a novel microinjection independent genome engineering method in mice. Sci Rep 5:11406
Gurumurthy BC, Sato M, Nakamura K et al (2019) Creation of CRISPR-based germline-genome-engineered mice without ex vivo handling of zygotes by i-GONAD. Nat Protoc 14:2452–2482
Hirose M, Honda A, Fulka H et al (2020) Acrosin is essential for sperm penetration through the zona pellucida in hamsters. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 117:2513–2518
Loubalova Z, Fulka H, Horvat F et al (2021) Formation of spermatogonia and fertile oocytes in golden hamsters requires piRNAs. Nat Cell Biol 23:992–1001
Hasuwa H, Iwasaki WY, Yeung AKW et al (2021) Production of functional oocytes requires maternally expressed PIWI genes and piRNAs in golden hamsters. Nat Cell Biol 23:1002–1012
Zhang H, Zhang F, Chen Q et al (2021) The piRNA pathway is essential for generating functional oocytes in golden hamsters. Nat Cell Biol 23:1013–1022
Gaston S, Menaker M (1967) Photoperiodic control of hamster testis. Science 158:925–928
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP19H03151 and JP19H05758 (both to A.O.).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Hirose, M., Tomishima, T., Ogura, A. (2023). Editing the Genome of the Golden Hamster (Mesocricetus auratus). In: Hatada, I. (eds) Genome Editing in Animals. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2637. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3016-7_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3016-7_19
Published:
Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-3015-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-3016-7
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols