Phenotyping Mouse Embryos

The mouse is an almost ideal and thus very popular biomedical model for researching gene function in mammalians, for studying the mechanisms underlying human congenital disorders and for testing clinical concepts. With the advent of the CRISPR-Cas9 technology and other highly advanced tools for targeted manipulation of the mouse genome and transcriptome, the production of genetically engineered mouse lines has become relatively quick and simple. This created a high demand of equally quick and simple methods, for analysing the various phenotype aspects of mutants. In the last years it turned out that 1/3 of single ko-lines produce homozygous offspring that die pre- or perinatally. In all these lines behavioural and most functional phenotype aspects are almost impossible to assess. Hence it is essential to at least generate highly comprehensive descriptions and analysis of the morphological phenotype for characterising the function of targeted genes and products.

The proposed Research Topic aims to provide an overview of state-of-the-art imaging methods available for phenotype analysis of mouse embryos. Methods creating three-dimensional (3D) digital computer representations, such as micro-Computed tomography (µCT), micro-Magnetic resonance imaging (µMRI), Optical projection tomography (OPT), High resolution episcopic microscopy (HREM), Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) and Optical coherence tomography (OCT), and methods based on two-dimensional (2D) data, such as Ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) and traditional histology will be covered.

This Research Topic welcomes original research articles, short reports and short reviews on technical advancements, but also original research presenting new embryonic phenotype data based on state-of-the-art imaging methods. Subtopics include, but are not limited to:
• New imaging methods and technical advancements
• Characterization of mutant mouse lines
• Phenotyping imaging pipelines