InVivo Biosystems services

The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is widely used in genetic and biomedical research. DNA fragment insertions can be introduced into the C. elegans genome. Our C. elegans knock-in services include point mutations, floxed alleles, degron tagging, fluorescent tagging and immunotagging. In the past 5 years, InVivo Biosystems has made over 600 fluorescent transgenic lines includuing 15 different fluorophores, 8 of which are variants of GFP. Fluorescent Tagging. Intestinal nuclei from late L4 worms in an lmn-1p::GFP::LMN-1 transgenic strain. The image is lmn-1 tagged endogenously with GFP.  Image courtesy of Dr. André Catic, Baylor College of Medicine.

The MosSCI service enables you to integrate your desired sequence as a single copy insertion at a designated locus in the C. elegans genome. This is advantageous as it allows you to leave the native gene unmodified. With the MosSCI service you can:

Extrachromosomal arrays enable your desired construct to be expressed without being integrated into the genome. Using extrachromosomal arrays, you can choose to express a variety of configurations of transgenes, such as a:

Knockouts are the bread and butter of reverse genetic studies. They allow researchers to study the effects of the absence of a particular gene, protein segment, amino acid, or regulatory element, thereby enabling the researcher to determine their function. Gene knockouts are a commonly used tool for biologists to understand gene function. Examination of phenotypes when the gene is deleted can reveal insights into what role that gene plays in the organism.