Common marmoset as a new model animal for neuroscience research and genome editing technology

• Published in: Development, growth & differentiation Vol. 56; no. 1; pp. 53 - 62
• Main Authors: Kishi, Noriyuki, Sato, Kenya, Sasaki, Erika, Okano, Hideyuki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japan Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-01-2014
• Subjects: Animals; Biomedical research; Callithrix - genetics; Callithrix jacchus; clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat/Cas9; common marmoset; Gene Targeting - methods; Genetic Engineering - methods; Genome - genetics; genome editing; Genomes; Models, Animal; Neurosciences; Neurosciences - methods; Primates; transcription activator‐like effector nuclease; zinc finger nuclease; genome editing; zinc finger nuclease; transcription activator-like effector nuclease; clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat/Cas9; common marmoset
• ISSN: 0012-1592; 1440-169X
• DOI: 10.1111/dgd.12109

The common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) is a small New World primate; it originally comes from the Atlantic coastal forests in northeastern Brazil. It has been attracting much attention in the biomedical research field because of its size, availability, and unique biological characteristics. Its endocrinological and behavioral similarity to humans, comparative ease in handling, and high reproductive efficiency are very advantageous for neuroscience research. Recently, we developed transgenic common marmosets with germline transmission, and this technological breakthrough provides a potential paradigm shift by enabling researchers to investigate complex biological phenomena using genetically‐modified non‐human primates. In this review, we summarize recent progress in marmoset research, and also discuss a potential application of genome editing tools that should be useful toward the generation of knock‐out/knock‐in marmoset models.