Thursday, 11 July 2013

A transgene

A transgene:
 An exogenous gene introduced into a living organism so that the organism will exhibit a new property and transmit that property to its offspring.

Transgenic animals :
The animal that carries a deliberate modification/insert into its genome, the genetic makeup of an organism responsible for inherited characteristics.

 History of transgenic animal production
  • 1966:Zygote microinjection technology established.
  • 1970's: first transgenic mice via viral infection.
  • 1977: mRNA and DNA transferred into Xenopus eggs.
  • 1980's: first transgenic mice via microinjection (the most popular technique).
  • 1985: first transgenic rabbits, sheep, pigs and cattle.
  • 1990’s:transgenic farm animals used as bioreactors and organ donors.
  • 1997: nuclear transfer using ES cells to drive transgenic sheep.
 The majority and successful transgenic animals produced so far are mice, A few years later, it was followed by rabbits, pigs, sheep, and cattle  fish, monkey, cat and cow.

Using recombinant DNA methodology

An animal contains a foreign gene (genes) introduced purposely by human intervention.

http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/VL/GG/images/transgenic.gif
An example:
Normal mice cannot be  infected with polio virus.
Mice lack the cell-surface molecule that found in humans,  that serves as the receptor for the virus.
So normal mice cannot serve as an inexpensive, easily-manipulated model for studying the disease. However, transgenic mice expressing the human gene for the polio virus receptor
• can be infected by polio virus
• develop paralysis and other pathological changes characteristic of the disease in
humans.

 Why Transgenic Animals?
  •  Interest in transgenic animals originally fell into two broad areas:
  • Molecular farming: using livestock to produce medicines, proteins and tissues for transplant to humans.
  • Production efficiency of farm animals: Interest among researchers. 

 To date, there are three basic methods of
producing transgenic animals:


 1-Embryonic stem cell-mediated gene transfer .
2- DNA microinjection.
3 -Retrovirus-mediated gene transfer.

 The benefits of these animals to human
welfare can be grouped into areas:
  • Agriculture
  • Medicine
  • Industry

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