REPRODUCTIVE AND GENETIC SCREENING SAMPLES OF MUTAGENISED ANIMALS

摘要

The invention provides a collection of paired samples from a plurality of mutagenised animals, wherein each paired sample comprises: a first sample comprising genetic screening material from a parent animal; and a second sample comprising reproductive material from that same parent animal. The reproductive material is preferably gametes. It also provides methods for producing and screening the collection, for instance to identify a gamete sample in such a collection known to carry a mutation in a gene of interest. This gamete sample can be used to generate an animal carrying that same mutation. The mutant animal is useful for investigating the function of the gene, and might also be a useful animal model for studying human disease. In effect, therefore, the mutations in a population of mutagenised animals are immortalised and animals carrying particular mutations of interest can be produced easily without the need to maintain a living animal population.