Lab resources

Collaboration guidelines

  • We always welcome like-minded people, who want to push the boundaries of Science.
  • If you would like to collaborate or want to access any of the lab resources, please write to “pmurawala@mdibl.org“. 
  • The MDIBL has a rich history of hosting visiting scientists at Salisbury Cove. The serenity of the Atlantic Ocean and the Acadia national park on mount desert island is a bonus if you are considering spending few months for your sabbatical or short research visit. 
  • To check out our transgenic axolotl repertoire, click here.
  • Click me – to learn more about the visiting scientist program at MDIBL.

Useful resources

Other Salamander resources
  1. Notopthalmus viridescenes transcriptome (Braun Lab)
  2. Notopthalmus viridescenes transcriptome (Simon Lab)
  3. Pleurodeles waltl transcriptome (Hayashi Lab)
Institutes on/near the Island
  1. MDIBL
  2. JAX

Lab Plasmids

Transgenic axolotl lines

  • For academic and research usage, please contact the Ambystoma genomic stock center
  • In the interest of the salamander research community, we may supply transgenic lines upon request. Please contact “pmurawala@mdibl.org“, if you are interested in any of the below listed transgenic lines.
  • We do not supply axolotls to private individuals. 

Disclaimer!!! 

  • Many of these lines are developed by researchers that do not belong to our lab.
  • Please cite and credit the transgenic lines appropriately as each line takes effort to generate stable F1/F2 lines and to thoroughly characterize them. 
  • Please also visit www.axobase.org for all published lines in the field.

The following transgenic animals are available in our laboratory at MDIBL.

Regular strains

1)         d/d strain – A white animal with black eyes (Order from AGSC)

2)         Wild type animals – Black animals (Order from AGSC)

Ubiquitous fluorescence for grafting studies

3)         tgSceI(CAGGs:eGFP)Etnka – Ubiquitous GFP expression (Sobkow et al, Developmental Biology, 2006) (Order from AGSC)

4)         tgSceI(CAGGs:CherryNuc)Etnka – Ubiquitous nuclear Cherry expression (Kragl et al, Nature, 2009) 

5)         tgSceI(CAGGs:lifeAct)Pmx – To visualize actin cytoskeleton (Unpublished)

6)         tgSceI(CAGGs:Alpha-Tubulin)Pmx – To visualize microtubules (Unpublished)

Fluorescent reporters

7)         tgSceI(Mmu.B3Tub:memGFP)Etnka -> For visualizing neurons (Khattak et al, Stem Cell Reports, 2013) (Order from AGSC)

8)         tgSceI(Mmu.B3Tub:Cherry)Pmx -> For visualizing neurons (Unpublished)

9)         tgSceI(Xla.Caract:GFP)Etnka -> For visualizing muscle fibers (Khattak et al, Stem Cell Reports, 2013)  (Order from AGSC)

10)      tgSceI(Mmu.CNP:GFP)Etnka -> For visualizing Schwann cells (Khattak et al, Stem Cell Reports, 2013) (Order from AGSC)

11)      tgSceI(RARE:GFP)Pmx -> For visualizing retinoic acid activity (Monaghan et al, Developmental Biology, 2012)

12)      tm(Sox2t/+:Sox2-T2A-Cherry)Etnka -> For visualizing neural progenitors (Fei et al, PNAS, 2017)

13)      tm(HoxA13t/+:HoxA13-T2A-Cherry)Etnka -> For visualizing hand plate cells (Oliveira et al, Nature Communications, 2022)

14)      tgSceI(TRE:GFP)Pmx -> For visualizing thyroid pathway activity (Unpublished)

Cre drivers

15)      tgSceI(CAGGs:ERT2-Cre-ERT2-T2a-GFPnls)Etnka -> Ubiquitous inducible Cre driver (Khattak et al, Stem Cell Reports, 2013) (Order from AGSC)

16)      tgSceI(Mmu.Col1A2:TFPnls-T2A-ERT2-Cre-ERT2)Etnka -> For labeling various subtypes of connective tissue cells across the body (Gerber et al, Science,  2018) (Order from AGSC)

17)      tm(Pax7t/+:Pax7-P2A-memCherry-T2A-ERT2-Cre-ERT2)Etnka -> For labeling satellite cells and Pax7 domain of the neural tube (Fei et al, PNAS, 2017) (Order from AGSC)

18)      tgSceI(Mmu.Prrx1:TFPnls-T2a-Cre-ERT2)Etnka -> For labeling limb mesenchyme derivatives (Gerber et al, Science,  2018) (Order from AGSC)

19)      tm(Sox2t/+:Sox2-P2A-memCherry-T2A-ERT2-Cre-ERT2)Etnka -> For labeling neural progenitors and lateral line cells (Fei et al, PNAS, 2017)

20)      tm(Twist3t/+:Twist3-T2A-GFPnls-T2A-ERT2-Cre-ERT2)Pmx -> For labeling dermal fibroblasts (Masselink et al, BioRxiv, 2024)

21)      tgSceI(Mmu.Lfng:GFPnls-T2a-Cre-ERT2)Pmx -> For labeling asomitic stem cells (Masselink et al, BioRxiv, 2024)

22)      tm(Sox9t/+:Sox9-T2A-GFPnls-T2A-ERT2-Cre-ERT2)Pmx -> For labeling skeletal cells (Unpublished)

23)       tm(MCKt/+:MCK-T2A-GFPnls-T2A-ERT2-Cre-ERT2)Pmx  -> For labeling skeletal muscles and cardiac muscle (Unpublished)

24)      Inducible Cre line -> For labeling hand plate fibroblasts (Unpublished)

25)      Inducible Cre line -> For labeling neural progenitor cells (Unpublished)

26)     Inducible Cre line -> For labeling neurons (Unpublished)

LoxP reporters

27)      tgSceI(CAGGS:Brainbow 2.1)Etnka-> Brainbow reporter (Currie et al, Dev Cell, 2016)

28)      tgSceI(CAGGs:LoxP-GFP-LoxP-Cherry)Etnka -> GFP to Cherry reporter (Khattak et al, Stem Cell Reports, 2013) (Order from AGSC)

29)      tgSceI(CAGGs:LoxP-GFP-dead (STOP)-LoxP-Cherry)Etnka -> No label to Cherry reporter (Kawaguchi et al, Dev Cell, 2024)

30)      tgSceI(CAGGs:LoxP-Cherry-LoxP-GFP)Etnka -> Cherry to GFP reporter (Unpublished)

31)      tgSceI(CAGGs:LoxP-BFPnls-LoxP-Cherry-T2A-NTR2.0)Pmx -> Conditional cell ablation line that uses metronidazole (Unpublished)

32)      tgSceI(CAGGs:LoxP-GFP-LoxP-DTR)Pmx -> Conditional cell ablation line that uses diphtheria toxin (Unpublished)

33)      tgSceI(CAGGs:LoxP-BFPnls-LoxP-mEOS2)Pmx -> Conditional photoconvertible reporter (Unpublished)

Gene Knockouts

34)      tm(Tyr733v6D4/733v6D4)Etnka -> Tyrosinase gene (Fei et al, Stem Cell reports, 2014)

Technical expertise

1)    Axolotl husbandry

                        I.         Khattak et al, Nature Protocols, 2014

2)    Axolotl transgenesis: I-SceI, Tol2

                        I.         Khattak et al, Nature Protocols, 2014

3)    CRISPR knock-in: NHEJ

                        I.         Fei et al, Nature Protocols, 2018

4)    Tissue clearing & imaging

                        I.         Masselink et al, Development, 2019

                      II.         Pende et al, Science Advances, 2020

5)    Ectopic gene expression: Baculovirus, Foamyvirus

                        I.         Oliveira et al, Developmental Biology, 2018

                      II.         Murawala et al, Methods Mol Bio, 2023

6)    Tissue-specific inducible Cre-loxP

                        I.         Gerber et al, Science, 2018


7)    Single-cell transcriptomics

                        I.         Gerber et al, Science, 2018

Protocols

  • Coming soon…