European Mouse Mutant Cell Repository (EuMMCR)
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The EuMMCR has been founded as the EUCOMM distribution unit. The mission of this group is to provide scientists worldwide with EUCOMM ES cell clones and targeting vectors in high quality and the optimal possible timely manner. EuMMCR archives all ES cell clones from the EUCOMM and EUCOMMTools production labs. All EUCOMM alleles are published on the EUCOMM and IKMC web sites. Upon requests of interested scientists EuMMCR will expand ES cell clones, characterize them and ship them to the ordering lab. The standard quality controls include a.) mycoplasma tests of every cell line and b.) a short PCR verifying the targeted allele and the presence of the 3’ loxP site in the allele. You can find all the information about ordering at EuMMCR.
- Short PCR verifying the identity of the allele and the presence of the 3’ loxP site
In addition EuMMCR provides users of the EUCOMM resource with additional quality controls for an additional fee:
1.) Genotyping PCR: EuMMCR will develop a genotyping reaction using a short PCR strategy for users ordering their ES cell clones “with genotyping”. This service is thought to provide the user with an easy to use genotyping reaction for ES cells and chimeric mice.
2.) 5’+3’LRPCR: When users order the ES cell clones with 5’ and 3’ LRPCR controls they will only receive clones witch passed 5’ and 3’ LRPCR assays. This service is thought to significantly reduce the risk for the user to receive a problem allele (see
- LRPCR’s are performed over the 5’ and 3’ homology arms, LR primers are blue arrows
3.) Chromosome count: The Chromosome counting service is intended to make certain that users only receive ES cell clones with at least 50% cells with normal chromosome count. Upon an order with chromosome counting we will count the chromosome spread of 30 cells and users will only receive ES cell clones with >50% normal chromosome count.
Achievements
EuMMCR started operations in January 2008. Since January 2008 the number of orders for EUCOMM ES cell clones did constantly rise. The green bars in the figure below show “EuMMCR production”. This refers to the number of ES cell clones successfully expanded and re-frozen in the EuMMCR lab. EuMMCR production was increased from 62 ES cell clones in the first quarter 2008 to 588 ES cell clones in the first quarter of 2011. The red bars in the figure below show the number of clones sent out to external users. The number of distributed clones went from 4 (1/2008) to 418 ES cell clones (1/2011) per quarter. The blue bars in the figure below show the ES cell clones provided to the EUCOMM mouse production partners (EUCOMM WP7). As quality control effort of EUCOMM those partners produced 361 mouse lines using the ES cell clones provided by the EuMMCR.
