Manipulation of Gene Function in Xenopus laevis

Xenopus laevis embryos are particularly well suited to address questions requiring either knockdown or overexpression of genes in a tissue-specific fashion during vertebrate embryonic development. These manipulations are achieved by targeted injection of either antisense morpholino oligonucleotides or synthetic mRNAs, respectively, into the early embryo. Herein we offer detailed protocols describing how to design and perform these experiments successfully, as well as a brief discussion of considerations for performing a microarray analysis in this organism.