Use of Embryonic and Somatic Cells for Production of Transgenic Domestic Animals

Generating mouse models for biomedical research: technological advances

Over the past decade, new methods and procedures have been developed to generate genetically engineered mouse models of human disease. This At a Glance article highlights several recent technical advances in mouse genome manipulation that have transformed our ability to manipulate and study gene expression in the mouse. We discuss how conventional gene targeting by homologous recombination in embryonic stem cells has given way to more refined methods that enable allele-specific manipulation in zygotes. We also highlight advances in the use of programmable endonucleases that have greatly increased the feasibility and ease of editing the mouse genome. Together, these and other technologies provide researchers with the molecular tools to functionally annotate the mouse genome with greater fidelity and specificity, as well as to generate new mouse models using faster, simpler and less costly techniques.

The potential for improving the growth and development of cultured farm animal oocytes

Previous predictions that the technologies for producing genetically engineered large animal embryos containing genes for faster growth rates, leaner carcasses, greater disease resistance and improved lactational performance would be available early in the twenty-first century have been, for the most part, realized. The animal industries have been slow to adopt these technological advances and it cannot be said that any of them are currently having great impact on animal agriculture worldwide. A major reason for this is the inefficiencies of the techniques for superovulation, ovum recovery, in vitro fertilization, nuclear transfer, cloning and embryo transfer. Although improvements in these techniques can be expected, the best hope for increasing the impact of embryo transfer technologies on the animal industries lies in developing ways to mature, harvest, store and fertilize in vitro the large numbers of primordial oocytes present in the ovaries of all farm animals. Although limited progress has been made in the culture of bovine primordial oocytes, it is clear that much more research is needed to achieve success in this important area.

Advances in livestock nuclear transfer

Cloning and transgenic animal production have been greatly enhanced by the development of nuclear transfer technology. In the past, genetic modification in domestic animals was not tightly controlled. With the nuclear transfer technology one can now create some domestic animals with specific genetic modifications. An ever-expanding variety of cell types have been successfully used as donors to create the clones. Both cell fusion and microinjection are successfully being used to create these animals. However, it is still not clear which stage(s) of the cell cycle for donor and recipient cells yield the greatest degree of development. While for the most part gene expression is reprogrammed in nuclear transfer embryos, all structural changes may not be corrected as evidenced by the length of the telomeres in sheep resulting from nuclear transfer. Even after these animals are created the question of "are they really clones?" arises due to mitochondrial inheritance from the donor cell versus the recipient oocyte. This review discusses these issues as they relate to livestock.