Impact of the Xenopus system on the missions of the NIDDK

Xenopus has played a very important role in the mission of NIDDK for a long time. Xenopus oocytes have been and still are an invaluable system to study the conductive properties of many channels and transporters expressed on renal epithelial cells. Many recent technological advances such as antisense morpholino oligomers for gene knockdowns, transgenic GFP lines for imaging and the genome information for X. tropicalis have promoted Xenopus as a valuable model not only to study early embryonic development, but also to investigate organogenesis. This has been realized by NIDDK and projects exploring the pronephric kidney, the pancreas and the liver are among the currently funded grants.