Administrative Supplement: Ambystoma Genetic Stock Center

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PROJECT SUMMARY The Ambystoma Genetic Stock Center (AGSC) is a P40 Research Resource that distributes laboratory axolotls (Ambystoma mexicanum) to researchers and educators nationally and internationally. The AGSC houses approximately 880 adults and several thousand larvae/juveniles in aquatic recirculating systems and static bowls to sustain a captive, wildtype breeding population and a growing number of mutant and transgenic lines. To ensure the health of axolotls within the AGSC and their reproducibility in biological experiments it is necessary to follow rigorous husbandry guidelines. The most critical variable in axolotl husbandry is water quality. Water quality must be extremely high to ensure normal axolotl development, growth and reproductive capacity, and to eliminate disease risks associated with pathogens. The AGSC maintains high water quality by ensuring a constant and readably available water supply and rigorous sanitary procedures to ensure the cleanliness of bowls and tanks. Tank and bowl sanitation is a labor-intensive process that is primarily done by hand, and to a lesser extent using an outdated, commercial restaurant dishwasher that is rapidly becoming non-functional. This Administrative Supplement will be used to purchase two Calypso - Aquatic Cabinet Washer systems that are designed to efficiently and effectively clean biological agents and associated biofilms from aquatic organism tanks and bowls. The addition of these new washer systems will provide infrastructure that is critically needed to maintain high water quality and sanitary procedures, increase efficiency of axolotl husbandry, and generate healthy and reproducible axolotl lines for biomedical researchers.