Sater Amy K, Moody Sally A
Department of Biology and Biochemistry, University of Houston, Houston, Texas.
Department of Anatomy and Regenerative Biology, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Washington, District of Columbia.
Genesis. 2017 Jan;55(1-2). doi: 10.1002/dvg.22997.
Model animals are crucial to biomedical research. Among the commonly used model animals, the amphibian, Xenopus, has had tremendous impact because of its unique experimental advantages, cost effectiveness, and close evolutionary relationship with mammals as a tetrapod. Over the past 50 years, the use of Xenopus has made possible many fundamental contributions to biomedicine, and it is a cornerstone of research in cell biology, developmental biology, evolutionary biology, immunology, molecular biology, neurobiology, and physiology. The prospects for Xenopus as an experimental system are excellent: Xenopus is uniquely well-suited for many contemporary approaches used to study fundamental biological and disease mechanisms. Moreover, recent advances in high throughput DNA sequencing, genome editing, proteomics, and pharmacological screening are easily applicable in Xenopus, enabling rapid functional genomics and human disease modeling at a systems level.
模式动物对生物医学研究至关重要。在常用的模式动物中，两栖动物非洲爪蟾因其独特的实验优势、成本效益以及作为四足动物与哺乳动物密切的进化关系而产生了巨大影响。在过去的50年里，非洲爪蟾的使用为生物医学做出了许多基础性贡献，它是细胞生物学、发育生物学、进化生物学、免疫学、分子生物学、神经生物学和生理学研究的基石。非洲爪蟾作为一个实验系统的前景非常好：非洲爪蟾特别适合用于研究基本生物学和疾病机制的许多当代方法。此外，高通量DNA测序、基因组编辑、蛋白质组学和药物筛选方面的最新进展很容易应用于非洲爪蟾，从而能够在系统水平上快速进行功能基因组学研究和人类疾病建模。
