Transgenic zebrafish produced by retroviral infection of in vitro -cultured sperm

Abstract

Transgenic modification of sperm before fertilization has distinct advantages over conventional transgenic methods. The primary advantage is that the mosaicism inherent in those other techniques is avoided. A culture system using primary cultures of zebrafish male germ cells, in which the differentiation from spermatogonia to functional sperm can occur in vitro, provides the opportunity for genetic modification of sperm in vitro. Here, we report the production of transgenic zebrafish from cultured sperm. The sperm were differentiated from premeiotic germ cells infected with a pseudotyped retrovirus in vitro. The collected sperm were used to perform successful in vitro fertilizations, and transgenic embryos were identified. The transgenic fish transmitted the proviral integration to the next generation in a Mendelian fashion. We report the generation of a transgenic animal by cultured sperm and open the door to many exciting possibilities for the rapid generation of transgenic lines in model organisms such as zebrafish or other animal systems that are otherwise intractable to transgenesis.