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. 2016 Aug 1;95(8):1905-11.
doi: 10.3382/ps/pew133. Epub 2016 Apr 20.

Cryopreservation of specialized chicken lines using cultured primordial germ cells

S Nandi  1 , J Whyte  1 , L Taylor  1 , A Sherman  1 , V Nair  2 , P Kaiser  1 , M J McGrew  3
Affiliations

Cryopreservation of specialized chicken lines using cultured primordial germ cells

S Nandi et al. Poult Sci. .

Abstract

Biosecurity and sustainability in poultry production requires reliable germplasm conservation. Germplasm conservation in poultry is more challenging in comparison to other livestock species. Embryo cryopreservation is not feasible for egg-laying animals, and chicken semen conservation has variable success for different chicken breeds. A potential solution is the cryopreservation of the committed diploid stem cell precursors to the gametes, the primordial germ cells ( PGCS: ). Primordial germ cells are the lineage-restricted cells found at early embryonic stages in birds and form the sperm and eggs. We demonstrate here, using flocks of partially inbred, lower-fertility, major histocompatibility complex- ( MHC-: ) restricted lines of chicken, that we can easily derive and cryopreserve a sufficient number of independent lines of male and female PGCs that would be sufficient to reconstitute a poultry breed. We demonstrate that germ-line transmission can be attained from these PGCs using a commercial layer line of chickens as a surrogate host. This research is a major step in developing and demonstrating that cryopreserved PGCs could be used for the biobanking of specialized flocks of birds used in research settings. The prospective application of this technology to poultry production will further increase sustainability to meet current and future production needs.

Keywords: biobank; chicken; cryopreservation; primordial germ cell; stem cell.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Diagram of a PGC biobank and reconstitution of offspring from cryopreserved PGCs. Blood is isolated from a single embryo and the PGCs are cultured until reaching more than 100,000 cells. The PGCs are then frozen in multiple aliquots. At a later time, a vial of PGCs is thawed and cultured for several days to allow the PGCs to recover. The PGCs are injected into surrogate host embryos and then incubated until hatching. The hatched chicks are sexed and the chicks containing injected donor PGCs of the same sex are raised to sexual maturity. The surrogate hosts are crossed in test matings. Some of the resulting offspring will inherit their genome from the donor PGCs, indicated by an *.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
PGCs cultured from inbred chicken lines. An example of derived PGCs culture from single embryos of Line 0 and line 6 chicken lines. Bar, 50 μm.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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