Abstract
Important events in embryonic development such as gastrulation, neurulation, and cranial neural crest development occur in ectodermal tissues during vertebrate embryonic development. Although the chicken embryo is a well-established model system in developmental biology, problems of accessibility of the ectoderm for experimental manipulation and an inability to generate gene knockouts previously impeded studies of gene regulation and key processes during chicken gastrulation and neurulation. The technique of in ovo electroporation permits genetic manipulation and provides a powerful animal model. However, the problem of accessibility to the ectoderm in ovo requires an ex ovo whole-embryo culture approach combined with electroporation. This unit provides convenient and reproducible whole-embryo ex ovo culture and electroporation protocols. These chicken embryo culture protocols can be used not only for gene regulatory experiments, but also for time-lapse imaging of the dynamics of early vertebrate development.