Automating the sorting of Xenopus oocytes and embryos

Xenopus laevis is the scientific name of the African clawed frog. This species is native from southern Africa and inhabits slow moving water or stagnant ponds. Its facility to adapt to different environments and conditions makes it considered as an invasive species in Europe, North America and South America (1). The consequence of its invasiveness is a decrease in the local biodiversity because of the competition with local amphibians and the fact that it eats local fishes and invertebrates (1). On the other hand, X.laevis is a very good model organism…

Comments Off on Automating the sorting of Xenopus oocytes and embryos

Zebrafish early embryo sorting

Over the past 20 years, the use of zebrafish in the lab has dramatically increased. In 2000, PubMed displayed 657 articles when searching for “zebrafish”. In 2020, that number shot up to 3’979 publications (1). This is most likely due to the many advantages zebrafish represent as an animal model (and which are resumed in our article What are zebrafish). Particularly, their high breeding capacity is a very interesting asset for experiments requiring large sample sizes. Zebrafish can indeed produce up to 300 embryos weekly, hence why they are referred…

Comments Off on Zebrafish early embryo sorting