Transgenic Axolotl Lines

This is a compilation of all published transgenic lines in axolotl. If you have made a new line that is not present in the list, please send an email to info@axobase.org with a scientific name of your line as per the guidelines on this website and reference publication (Nowoshilow et al, Dev Dyn, 2021).

For the academic and research usage of these lines, either contact the senior author of the publication or check its availability at Ambystoma genomic stock center.

Please cite and credit the transgenic lines appropriately as each line takes effort to generate stable F1 and F2 lines and to thoroughly characterize them.

Regular and naturally occurring mutant stains (Available at AGSC – *Cloned)

  1. Wildtype – dark grayish-green axolotls with black, olive, and iridescent mottling.
  2. *White (edn3) – white axolotls with few melanophores; eyes have melanin and iridophores. (Woodcock et al, Sci Reports, 2017)
  3. *Albino (tyr) – yellowish axolotls with increased numbers of xanthophores and no melanin pigmentation. (Woodcock et al, Sci Reports, 2017)
  4. *White-Albino (edn3/tyr) – whitish-colored axolotls with no melanin pigmentation. (Woodcock et al, Sci Reports, 2017)
  5. Melanoid – solid or spotted grayish-black axolotls with increased numbers of melanophores, no iridophores, and a reduced number of xanthophores.
  6. Axanthic (ax) – spotted, grayish axolotls that lack xanthophores and iridophores.
  7. *Cardiac (tnnt2) – axolotl with abnormal heart development; embryonic lethal. (Smith et al, Genome Res, 2017)
  8. Short-toes (s) – axolotl with abnormal limb and kidney development; lethal, rarely lives more than 1 year.
  9. *Eyeless (rax) – axolotl that does not develop eyes. Sterile with enhanced melanin pigmentation. (Davis et al, Dev Dyn, 2020)

Transgenic animals

  • – Not all are available at AGSC, but as a community, we are working towards this goal.
  • – # - Lines are deposited to AGSC and they will become available by the end of 2022.

Ubiquitous fluorescent reporter

  1. #tgSceI(CAGGs:eGFP)ETNKA - Ubiquitous GFP expression (Sobkow et al, Developmental Biology, 2006)
  2. #tgSceI(CAGGs:RFP)CrewsLab - Ubiquitous RFP expression
  3. tgSceI(CAGGs:CherryNuc)ETNKA - Ubiquitous nuclear Cherry expression (Kragl et al, Nature, 2009)

Fluorescent reporters

  1. #tgSceI(Mmu.B3Tub:memGFP)ETNKA - For visualizing neurons (Khattak et al, Stem Cell Reports, 2013)
  2. #tgSceI(Xla.Caract:GFP)ETNKA - For visualizing muscle fibers (Khattak et al, Stem Cell Reports, 2013)
  3. tgSceI(Mmu.CNP:GFP)ETNKA - For visualizing Schwann cells (Khattak et al, Stem Cell Reports, 2013)
  4. tgSceI(Xtr.Col2A1:eGFP)ETNKA - For visualizing chondrocytes (Khattak et al, Stem Cell Reports, 2013)
  5. tgSceI(Xla.KRT12:eGFP)ETNKA - For visualizing outer epidermis (Khattak et al, Stem Cell Reports, 2013)
  6. tm(Pax7t/+:Pax7-T2A-Cherry)ETNKA - For visualizing satellite cells (Fei et al, PNAS, 2017)
  7. #tm(Sox2t/+:Sox2-T2A-Cherry)ETNKA - For visualizing neural progenitors (Fei et al, PNAS, 2017)
  8. #tgSceI(RARE:GFP)PMX - For visualizing retinoic acid activity (Monaghan et al,  Developmental Biology, 2012)
  9. tm(HoxA13t/+:HoxA13-T2A-Cherry)ETNKA - For visualizing hand plate cells (Oliveira et al., BioRxiv, 2021)

Cre drivers

  1. #tgSceI(CAGGs:ERT2-Cre-ERT2-T2a-GFPnls)ETNKA - Ubiquitous inducible Cre driver (Khattak et al, Stem Cell Reports, 2013)
  2. tgSceI(Amex.Sox2:Cre-ERT2-T2A-GFP)ETNKA - Telencephalon-specific inducible Cre driver (Khattak et al, Stem Cell Reports, 2013)
  3. tgTol2(Xtr.Col2A1:ER-Cre-ERt2-T2A-eGFPnuc)ETNKA - Inducible cre to label chondrocytes in primary body axis (Khattak et al, Stem Cell Reports, 2013)
  4. tm(Pax7t/+:Pax7-P2A-memCherry-T2A-ERT2-Cre-ERT2)ETNKA - Satellite cell-specific inducible Cre driver (Fei et al, PNAS, 2017)
  5. tm(Sox2t/+:Sox2-P2A-memCherry-T2A-ERT2-Cre-ERT2)ETNKA - Neural progenitor-specific inducible Cre driver (Fei et al, PNAS, 2017)
  6. #tgSceI(Mmu.Prrx1:TFPnls-T2a-Cre-ERT2)ETNKA - Limb connective tissue progenitor-specific inducible Cre driver (Fused to one ERT2) (Gerber et al, Science, 2018)
  7. #tgSceI(Mmu.Prrx1:TFPnls-T2a-ERT2-Cre-ERT2)PMX - Limb connective tissue progenitor-specific inducible Cre driver (Fused to two ERT2) (Tilley et al, Dev Dyn, 2021)
  8. tgSceI(Mmu.Col1A2:TFPnls-T2A-ERT2-Cre-ERT2)ETNKA - inducible Cre line to label various subtypes of connective tissue cells across the body (Gerber et al, Science, 2018)
  9. tgSceI(Xtr.Col2a1:TFPnls-T2A-ERT2-Cre-ERT2)ETNKA - inducible Cre line to label chondrocytes (Gerber et al, Science, 2018)
  10. tm(Eya2t/+:Eya2-P2A-Cre)WhitedLab - (Sousounis et al., eLife, 2020)

Ubiquitous loxP reporters

  1. #tgSceI(CAGGs:LoxP-GFP-LoxP-Cherry)ETNKA - GFP to Cherry reporter (Khattak et al, Stem Cell Reports, 2013)
  2. tgSceI(CAGGs:LoxP-GFP-LoxP-Tomato)ETNKA - GFP to tdTomato reporter (Khattak et al, Stem Cell Reports, 2013)
  3. #tgSceI(CAGGS:Brainbow 2.1)ETNKA – Brainbow 2.1 reporter (Currie et al, Dev Cell, 2016)

LoxP for gene function analysis

  1. tgTol2(CAGGs:LP-eGFP-LP-p16INK4a-T2A-Cherry)ETNKA – Overexpression of loxP-dependent cell cycle inhibitor (Khattak et al, Stem Cell Reports, 2013)

LacI for gene function analysis

  1. tg(CAG-LacI;pO-thrombospondin-4)WhitedLab – (Whited et al, PNAS, 2012)

Gene knock-out

  1. #tm(Tyr733v6D4/733v6D4)ETNKA - Tyrosinase gene knockout (Fei et al, Stem Cell reports, 2014)
  2. tm(Sox2-/-)ETNKA – Sox2 gene knockout (Fei et al, Stem Cell reports, 2014)
  3. tm(eGFP-/-)CrewsLab – GFP gene knockout (Flowers et al, Development, 2014)
  4. tm(TbxT-/-)CrewsLab - Brachyury gene knockout (Flowers et al, Development, 2014)
  5. tm(Thbs1-/-)WhitedLab - Thrombospondin gene knockout (Kuo et al, Regeneration, 2014)
  6. tm(Eya2-/-)WhitedLab - Eya2 gene knockout (Sousounis et al., eLife, 2020)

Gene overexpression

  1. tgTol2(Krt5:Edn3)VossLab - (Woodcock et al, Sci Reports, 2017)
  2. tgTol2(Actb2:Edn3) VossLab - (Woodcock et al, Sci Reports, 2017)