Transgenesis and Germ Cell Engineering in Domestic Animals

Transgenesis in farm animals

The production of transgenic animals has many biotechnological applications; however, available techniques still remain inefficient. This review summarizes the contributions of our group to transgenesis in domestic animal. One of the most traditional transgenesis techniques in farm animals is somatic cell nuclear transfer using genetically modified somatic cells. Using this technique, we produc...

Altering nutrient utilization in animals through transgenesis.

Improved domestic animal productivity is necessary in order to provide for an increasing world population over the next two to three decades and such improvement would be aided by an increase in the efficiency of nutrient utilization. This can be achieved by conventional genetic selection protocols but progress by this approach is slow. A more rapid but as yet largely unproven technique is the ...

Mammalian germ-line transgenesis by transposition.

Transposons have been used in invertebrates for transgenesis and insertional mutagens in genetic screens. We tested a functional transposon called Sleeping Beauty in the one-cell mouse embryo. In this report, we describe experiments in which transposon vectors were injected into one-cell mouse embryos with mRNA expressing the SB10 transposase enzyme. Molecular evidence of transposition was obta...

Recent advances in micromanipulation and transgenesis in domestic mammals

Background: Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) involves mechanical transfer of a single sperm cell into ooplasm. A new application has been recently found for ICSI, the production of transgenic animals. Since the birth of ‘‘Dolly’’, the first adult somatic cloned mammal, viable offspring has been produced by nuclear transfer in many species including cattle. The present review briefly summ...

Genetic Engineering of Domestic Animals: Human Prerogative or Animal Cruelty?