The speed of progress in this endeavour has highlighted the shortage of experts to fully characterise the new mouse lines produced.
A European Commission (EC)-funded strategy initiative (PRIME) now reports a study on the provision of the specific pathology expertise in mouse functional genomics. The paper by Warren et al. reveals that in Europe there is a critical lack of the specific expertise needed to understand the pathology of mutant mice, and that much of the work is being carried out by pathologists in clinical diagnostic posts, often with little support or training in comparative pathology. Similar concerns have recently been voiced by pathologists in North America.
The results indicate a lack of both trainees and provision of specialist training in this field, with the availability of diagnostic expertise and advice falling far short of the number of genetically engineered mice (GEM) being generated for analysis. This has lead to the worrying trend of "DIY" pathology and the inaccurate reporting of pathological data in scientific journals.
The paper highlights the critical need for a coordinated approach to the specialist training of pathologists in laboratory mouse pathology and genetics, and the urgent need for investment in a training infrastructure for Europe.
www3.interscience.wiley/journal/121427244/abstract
The study is part of a large, international effort to fully characterize the microbiota in the human gut, which is the highest-density natural bacterial ecosystem known. Up to 100 trillion microbial cells reside in the gut, and this community plays essential roles in nutrition, development, metabolism, pathogen resistance, and regulation of immune responses.
Until recently, descriptions of human-associated microbiota were constrained by techniques of cultivating (and thus identifying) bacteria. Less than 20-40% of the microbes in the human distal gut, for example, have been cultured in the laboratory. Since the late 1980s, however, cultivation-independent microbial surveys have been developed that identify community members by genetic sequencing. Sogin's technique, for example, which was used in this study, characterizes microbial populations by sequencing short, hypervariable regions of one gene common to all microbes, the 16S rRNA gene. This pyrosequencing technique reveals greater taxonomic richness in microbial samples at a fraction of the cost of traditional sequencing technologies.
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