Citation

Tajer BJ, Kalu G, Jay S, Wynn E, Decaux A, Gilbert P, Singer HD, Kidd MD, Nelson JA, Harake N, Lopez NJ, Souchet NR, Luong AG, Savage AM, Min S, Karabacak A, Böhm S, Kim RT, Froitzheim T, Sousounis K, Courtemanche K, Han J, Payzin-Dogru D, Blair SJ, Roy S, Fei JF, Tanaka EM, Whited JL. 2025. Optimized toolkit for the manipulation of immortalized axolotl fibroblasts. Methods (San Diego, Calif.). 240:21-34. Pubmed: 40187387 DOI:S1046-2023(25)00085-4

Abstract

The axolotl salamander model has broad utility for regeneration studies, but this model is limited by a lack of efficient cell-culture-based tools. The Axolotl Limb-1 (AL-1) fibroblast line, the only available immortalized axolotl cell line, was first published over 20 years ago, but many established molecular biology techniques, such as lipofectamine transfection, CRISPR-Cas9 mutagenesis, and antibiotic selection, work poorly or remain untested in AL-1 cells. Innovating technologies to manipulate AL-1 cells in culture and study their behavior following transplantation into the axolotl will complement in-vivo studies, decrease the number of animals used, and enable the faster, more streamlined investigation of regenerative biology questions. Here, we establish transfection, mutagenesis, antibiotic selection, and in-vivo transplantation techniques in axolotl AL-1 cells. These techniques will enable efficient culture with AL-1 cells and guide future tool development for the culture and manipulation of other salamander cell lines.
Copyright © 2025. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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Photo of Jessica Whited

Jessica Whited studies limb regeneration in axolotl salamanders. Her lab develops tools to manipulate gene expression during limb regeneration, and explores signaling events following wound healing that initiate the regenerative process.

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