Construction of a homozygous mutant embryonic stem cell bank

小鼠胚胎干细胞的诱变为基因功能研究提供了有力的资源。用于ES细胞定向分化的新兴细胞培养技术将进一步加速这一趋势。哺乳动物基因组的二倍体性质经常阻碍这一过程，因为每个基因的两个等位基因都需要突变。在本研究中，我们开发了一种新的方法，快速突变小鼠ES细胞的二倍体基因组，并产生纯合突变体。该方法将为组织培养系统中基因功能的研究提供便利。

Mutagenesis of mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells provides a powerful resource for functional analyses of genes. Emerging cell culture techniques for directed differentiation of ES cells will further accelerate this trend. The diploid nature of the mammalian genome often hampers this process because both alleles need to be mutated for each gene. In the present study, we develop a novel method to rapidly mutate diploid genome of mouse ES cells and generate homozygous mutants. This method will facilitate gene function study in tissue culture systems.