UNSW Banner

UNSW Embryology

Mouse Development

© Dr Mark Hill (2008)

Acknowledgements

Introduction

The mouse (taxon-mus) has always been a good embryological model, easy to generate (litters 8-20) and quick (21d) (More? Mouse Stages and Mouse Timeline). Mouse embryology really expanded when molecular biologists used mice for gene knockouts, suddenly you had to understand about development in order to understand the effect of knocking out the gene (More? see KnockoutList). There are over 450 different strains of inbred research mice, and this has recently been organized into a chart (More? Rat Genealogy). While being an ideal model organism, only a relatively small amount (1.5%) of the total mouse genome sequenced (More? see Mouse Genome Sequencing). Those interested in the mouse reproductive cycle, should also look at the Mouse Estrous Cycle

Page Links: Introduction | Some Recent Findings | Stages Comparison | Genealogy Chart of Inbred Strains | Mouse Knockouts | Mouse Internet Links | References | Glossary

Related Pages: Mouse Stages | Mouse Timeline | Detailed Mouse Timeline | Mouse Estrous

Some Recent Findings

Oginuma M, Niwa Y, Chapman DL, Saga Y. Mesp2 and Tbx6 cooperatively create periodic patterns coupled with the clock machinery during mouse somitogenesis. Development. 2008 Jun 25.

"The timing and spacing of somitogenesis are regulated by the segmentation clock, which is characterized by the oscillation of several signaling pathways in mice. ...found a clear link between Mesp2 transcription and the periodic waves of Notch activity."

Carnegie Stages Comparison

Data For Carnegie Stages Comparison Graph (Species/Days)
(All Species Data)

Species

Stage

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

Human

Days

20

22

24

28

30

33

36

40

42

44

48

52

54

55

58

Mouse

Days

9

9.5

10

10.5

11

11.5

12

12.5

13

13.5

14

14.5

15

15.5

16

Rat

Days

10.5

11

11.5

12

12.5

13

13.5

14

14.5

15

15.5

16

16.5

17

17.5

References

Human - O'Rahilly, Early human development and the chief source of information on staged human embryos. Eur. J. Obstet. Gynec. Reprod. Biol. 9 p273 (1979)

Mouse - Theiler, The house mouse. Springer-Verlag, NY (1972)

Rat - Witschi, Growth. Altman and Dittmer (ed), Fed. Soc. Exp. Biol., Washington (1962)

 

Reference for Staging the Mouse Embryo

Staging of gastrulating mouse embryos by morphological landmarks in the dissecting microscope. Downs KM, Davies T Development 1993 Aug;118(4):1255-66 PubMed Entry | Development Article

"We describe and illustrate a set of morphological landmarks for classifying mouse embryos by gross morphology from before gastrulation to the beginning of organogenesis. These landmarks are visible at the resolution of the dissecting microscope in embryos that are intact except for reflexion of Reichert's membrane. Adoption of these criteria should facilitate interpretation of both the expression patterns of genes and the consequences of experimental manipulation of embryos during early postimplantation development."

The Mouse its Reproduction and Development Rugh, R. Oxford University Press, Oxford (1990)

Demonstration of the E12.5 mouse embryo cardiovascular system. (lateral and dorsal views) placental vessels in the first image (on right of embryo).

Mouse Knockouts

Knowledge about mouse development has rapidly expanded as it has become the model animal system for genetic "knock out " studies. This technology actually requires development of defined breeding programs, pseudo-pregnancy, in vitro fertilization, molecular biology, and good old fashioned histology. Without understanding normal development the molecular biologists don't stand a hope of understanding what their gene knock out has done. There is a database of all existing mouse knockouts and their consequences.

Murine Development Control Genes

Kessel, M. and Gruss, P. Science 249 374-379 (1990)

An early review of the genes, and method of identifying them, involved in early mouse development. In particular discusses Homeobox genes. (homeobox is 183bp encoding a 61 amino acid DNA-binding domain)

The Genealogy Chart of Inbred Strains

This chart shows the origins and relationships of inbred mouse strains. The chart is available as a PDF document Locally or from JAX Labs and was originally published by Beck etal., 2000.

Mouse Genome Sequencing

Mouse Genome (17 August 2001)

(More? see external Link- Mouse Genome Sequencing)

Genome Sequencing- Breakdown by Chromosome (17 August 2001)

Chromosome

Effective size (kb)

Sequence done (kb)

Percent finished

Number of contigs

Longest contig (kb)

1

216000

2706

1.3%

14

345

2

209000

1554

0.7%

9

341

3

180000

1211

0.7%

8

209

4

177000

1220

0.7%

11

278

5

170000

3002

1.8%

10

617

6

166000

4077

2.5%

18

700

7

156000

3874

2.5%

20

759

8

149000

731

0.5%

5

212

9

144000

1022

0.7%

6

286

10

145000

2428

1.7%

12

403

11

142000

3958

2.8%

24

388

12

146000

929

0.6%

5

381

13

131000

206

0.2%

2

179

14

134000

2637

2.0%

6

1666

15

122000

398

0.3%

2

203

16

114000

1514

1.3%

5

635

17

116000

3463

3.0%

15

1521

18

116000

2084

1.8%

10

485

19

82000

505

0.6%

5

186

X

187000

3987

2.1%

23

415

Y

86000

237

0.3%

2

185

Total

3088000

47516

1.5

251

 

Data from: NCBI- Mouse Genome Sequencing

References

Reviews | Articles | Search NCBI Bookshelf | Search PubMed

Reviews

Tam PP. Postimplantation mouse development: whole embryo culture and micro-manipulation. Int J Dev Biol. 1998;42(7):895-902.

Kablar B, Rudnicki MA. Skeletal muscle development in the mouse embryo. Histol Histopathol. 2000 Apr;15(2):649-56.

Articles

Oginuma M, Niwa Y, Chapman DL, Saga Y. Mesp2 and Tbx6 cooperatively create periodic patterns coupled with the clock machinery during mouse somitogenesis. Development. 2008 Jun 25.

Jouneau A, Zhou Q, Camus A, Brochard V, Maulny L, Collignon J, Renard JP. Developmental abnormalities of NT mouse embryos appear early after implantation. Development. 2006 Apr;133(8):1597-607.

Search NCBI Bookshelf: Bookshelf - mouse development

Search PubMed: Search June 2008 "mouse development" 149,714 reference articles of which 16,045 were reviews.

Search term = mouse development | mouse embryo development | Postimplantation mouse development

Glossary of Terms

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

Mouse Internet Links

Quick Links

UNSW Embryology ISBN: 978 0 7334 2609 4

UNSW CRICOS Provider Code No. 00098G