TY - JOUR
T1 - Embryos and embryonic stem cells from the white rhinoceros
AU - Hildebrandt, Thomas B.
AU - Hermes, Robert
AU - Colleoni, Silvia
AU - Diecke, Sebastian
AU - Holtze, Susanne
AU - Renfree, Marilyn B.
AU - Stejskal, Jan
AU - Hayashi, Katsuhiko
AU - Drukker, Micha
AU - Loi, Pasqualino
AU - Göritz, Frank
AU - Lazzari, Giovanna
AU - Galli, Cesare
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the ZOO Dvůr Králové, Avantea and the Nadace ČEZ for logistic and financial support. We thank our colleagues Arn Ludwig, Dietmar Lieckfeldt, Alessandra Quaggio (IZW), Irina Lagutina, Paola Turini, Andrea Perota (Avantea), Ejona Rusha (Helmholtz Zentrum München), Anje Sporbert, Narasimha Swamy Telugu, Norman Krüger (Max Delbrueck Center), Elke Schuemann, Gundula Thiel, Arno Schnorrenberg, Ivo Weissmann, and Peter Steiner for technical assistance. Steven Seet (IZW) for his activities in regards to fund raising, networking and public relation work for this project. We are thankful to numerous European zoological institutions (listed in alphabetic institutional order) for participating in the advanced assisted breeding program in rhinoceroses: Zoo Budapest, Zoo Chorzów, Zoo Dvůr Kralové, Longleat Safari Park, Montpellier Zoo, Zoo Pairi Daiza, Zoo Poznán, Zoo Salzburg, Zoo Schwerin, Zoo Thoiry. K.H. is supported by KAKEN 15K21736, 25114006, and 17H01395. P.L. is supported by H2020 EU Drynet and EraofArt. We acknowledge the slaughterhouses (L Scordamaglia, CEO of Inalca Spa, Franco Caffi, Vice-President of Prosus Spa and Maria Grazia Ragazzi of Zerbini & Ragazzi SNC) for access to key biological materials. We thank Ms. Brunella Gadda of DHL Express and her team with the logistic of shipping the rhino oocytes. We also thank our colleagues from San Diego Zoo Global for constructive discussions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The Author(s).
PY - 2018/12/1
Y1 - 2018/12/1
N2 - The northern white rhinoceros (NWR, Ceratotherium simum cottoni) is the most endangered mammal in the world with only two females surviving. Here we adapt existing assisted reproduction techniques (ART) to fertilize Southern White Rhinoceros (SWR) oocytes with NWR spermatozoa. We show that rhinoceros oocytes can be repeatedly recovered from live SWR females by transrectal ovum pick-up, matured, fertilized by intracytoplasmic sperm injection and developed to the blastocyst stage in vitro. Next, we generate hybrid rhinoceros embryos in vitro using gametes of NWR and SWR. We also establish embryonic stem cell lines from the SWR blastocysts. Blastocysts are cryopreserved for later embryo transfer. Our results indicate that ART could be a viable strategy to rescue genes from the iconic, almost extinct, northern white rhinoceros and may also have broader impact if applied with similar success to other endangered large mammalian species.
AB - The northern white rhinoceros (NWR, Ceratotherium simum cottoni) is the most endangered mammal in the world with only two females surviving. Here we adapt existing assisted reproduction techniques (ART) to fertilize Southern White Rhinoceros (SWR) oocytes with NWR spermatozoa. We show that rhinoceros oocytes can be repeatedly recovered from live SWR females by transrectal ovum pick-up, matured, fertilized by intracytoplasmic sperm injection and developed to the blastocyst stage in vitro. Next, we generate hybrid rhinoceros embryos in vitro using gametes of NWR and SWR. We also establish embryonic stem cell lines from the SWR blastocysts. Blastocysts are cryopreserved for later embryo transfer. Our results indicate that ART could be a viable strategy to rescue genes from the iconic, almost extinct, northern white rhinoceros and may also have broader impact if applied with similar success to other endangered large mammalian species.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41467-018-04959-2
DO - 10.1038/s41467-018-04959-2
M3 - Article
C2 - 29973581
AN - SCOPUS:85049753966
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 9
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 2589
ER -