Operational Support of the Indiana University Axolotl Colony

该奖项为印第安纳州大学蝾螈殖民地的运作提供了新的支持，该殖民地是一个自我维持的繁殖地，是一种幼态蝾螈。 每年，殖民地向美国和海外的生物学研究人员和教育工作者提供超过50，000个胚胎、幼虫和成虫。 殖民地的工作人员还应要求提供技术专门知识，殖民地是合作和分享调查结果的交流场所。美西螈仍然是一个有价值的非哺乳类脊椎动物模型系统。它的许多特殊特性之一是它能够在胚胎、幼虫和成虫的整个生命过程中完美地再生身体的许多部分，包括前肢和后肢、尾巴、心脏、大脑、脊髓和下巴。在过去的十年中，分子试剂的供应急剧增加，例如用于免疫细胞化学的抗体、用于原位杂交的克隆基因以及用于基因表达和调控研究的DNA文库。这种分子工具的积累有助于维持蝾螈作为一个现代的，模型系统研究脊椎动物的发展。

This award provides renewed support for operation of the Indiana University Axolotl Colony, a self-sustaining, breeding colony of Ambystoma mexicanum, a neotenic salamander. Each year, the Colony supplies over 50,000 embryos, larvae, and adults to biology researchers and educators in the United States and overseas. The Colony's staff also provide technical expertise on request, and the Colony serves as a communications venue for collaboration and shared findings. The axolotl continues to represent a valuable, non-mammalian vertebrate model system. Among its many special characteristics is its ability to perfectly regenerate numerous parts of the body, including fore and hindlimbs, tail, heart, brain, spinal cord and jaw, throughout embryonic, larval and adult life. In the past decade, there has been a dramatic increase in the availability of molecular reagents, such as antibodies for immunocytochemistry, cloned genes for in situ hybridization and DNA libraries for studies in gene expression and regulation. This accumulation of molecular tools has helped to maintain axolotls as a modern, model system for study of vertebrate development.