Fig. 1. Electroporation of expression plasmids into ectoderm of cultured quail embryos. (A) Electroporation and whole embryo culture. Plasmid DNA is placed on the dorsal surface of the stage 5-6 quail embryo adhering to the collagen-coated membrane (1). Electroporation is performed in the chamber filled with Hanks BSS (2). The embryo is cultured on vitelline membrane in culture medium (3). (B) A demonstrative picture showing how electroporation is performed. As a negative electrode, L-shaped tungsten needle is used. The tip of the electrode is placed over the right side of the ectoderm. The square-shaped positive electrode is fixed underneath the embryo. (C,D) An example of cultured embryo. Electroporation was performed at stage 6, and cultured until stage 10 (approximately 12 hours). Expression of GFP is visible in the right side of the embryo. BF, bright field. (E) Correlation of schedule of electroporation (EP), culture length, Hamburger and Hamilton stages and somite number.
