TROPLIST: eNasco.com: Xenopus tropicalis fertility problem

[Hirsch, Nicolas]

I am forwarding a letter I received from Linda Northey at NASCO in response to Christof Niehrs' problem.
 
 

Dear Nick, 

 

It is good to hear from you again, but the news from Dr. Niehrs is not so good. 

 

I will pull his shipment records and do some detective work on the spawn group we sent to him.  Thank you for bringing this to our attention.  We have lots of nice looking tropicalis frogs, but they are no use if they won't reproduce.  We will do some intense breeding rounds with the various spawn groups we have to verify capabilities.  I do not know if we still have animals remaining from the group Dr. Niehrs received. They may have already been shipped. If we've got some left, we will start with that group first.

 

Regards,

 

Linda Northey

Live Biologicals Mgr.

Nasco Biology Dept.

Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 USA

Ph: (920) 568-5521

FAX: (920) 568-5573

E-mail: lnorthey@eNASCO.com

 

 

From: Hirsch, Nicolas [mailto:HirschN@hiram.edu] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 8:46 AM
To: biology@enasco.com
Subject: eNasco.com: Xenopus laevis Frogs Response

 

For Linda Northey:

 

Linda,

 

I hope you are well. I have taken a position at Hiram college in Ohio, where I am continuing my research on Xenopus tropicalis. I received a letter from Christof Niehrs in Germany complaining about sterility in NASCO tropicalis, which I have attached to the end of this email. I know you check the fertility of your animals, so I was wondering if you had seen this problem before. In my personal experience, NASCO animals are always the most fertile right after you ship them. Often their fertility declines afterwards, but I've always chalked this up to our housing conditions not being as good as yours. Do you have any thoughts on this?

 

Thanks,

 

Nick Hirsch

 

 

Niehrs letter:

 

We have had problems with Nasco tropicalis. In the last batch we received from them in 2008 both males and females are infertile. Females do not lay eggs at all upon priming. Male frog testis do not fertilize eggs of non-Nasco origin, which however fertilize well with other testis.

 

We first thought that the animals were still to young (even though they were sold as >6 months old). Now they are another 5 months older an the animals are still infertile.

Unrelated trops which are older are working OK, so it is not housing conditions but definitely to do with Nasco frogs.

 

Anybody else have recent infertility problems with Nasco tropicalis ?

 

  

 

Prof. Christof Niehrs

Division of Molecular Embryology

German Cancer Research Center

Im Neuenheimer Feld 581

69120 Heidelberg

Germany

 

Tel +49-6221-42-4690

FAX +49-6221-42-4692

homepage: http://www.dkfz.de/en/mol_embryology/index.html

email: niehrs@dkfz.de

 

 

 

 

_________________________________________________

 

Dr. Nick Hirsch

Department of Biology

Hiram College

Hiram, Ohio   44234

 

Phone: 330-569-5848

Email: hirschn@hiram.edu <mailto:hirschn@hiram.edu> 

 

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