They are animals which have been genetically modified by incorporating foreign and other specific ones through recombinant DNA technology.
Context
- Transgenic Animals Information
- Important Uses Of Transgenic Animals
Transgenic Animals Info.
A number of animals have been
genetically modified,
DNA into cells, tissues, organs of embryo or zygote depending upon the requirement. For raising transgenic animals, the adult females are injected hormone for superovulation or production of several eggs. The females are then mated. Fertilized eggs are taken out from the oviducts. The eggs are studied under the microscope for finding out if the male and female pronuclei are separate or zygotic nucleus has been produced. The male pronucleus is generally larger. With the help of micropipette the vector carrying the desired gene is injected into the male pronucleus or the zygotic nucleus. The transformed fertilized eggs are allowed to grow for some time and then implanted in the uterus of a surrogate female. The offspring will be transgenic. Some of the important uses of transgenic animals are as follow
rats, rabbits, pigs, sheep, cows, fish. 95% of them are transgenic mice.
The various steps required production of transgenic animals are
The various steps required production of transgenic animals are
- Identification, location and isolation of required gene.
- Finding a suitable vector.
- Fusion of the desired gene with the vector.
- Introduction of recombinant
DNA into cells, tissues, organs of embryo or zygote depending upon the requirement. For raising transgenic animals, the adult females are injected hormone for superovulation or production of several eggs. The females are then mated. Fertilized eggs are taken out from the oviducts. The eggs are studied under the microscope for finding out if the male and female pronuclei are separate or zygotic nucleus has been produced. The male pronucleus is generally larger. With the help of micropipette the vector carrying the desired gene is injected into the male pronucleus or the zygotic nucleus. The transformed fertilized eggs are allowed to grow for some time and then implanted in the uterus of a surrogate female. The offspring will be transgenic. Some of the important uses of transgenic animals are as follow
Important Uses Of Transgenic Animals
1. Normal Physiology and Development.
Transgenic animals enable scientists to study the working genes, their regulation, effect on normal body functions and development. Insulin-like growth factors (IGF-II and IGF-I) are polypeptides which take part in promoting growth of embryo and post embryonic post-natal stage. By introducing genes from other species, that alter the function of these factors, the biological aspect of growth and effect of these factors on growth are studied.
2. Study of Diseases.
Proneness to different diseases has been found to be genetically based.
Transgenic animals are used for study how the genes take parts in development of diseases. The animals are also being used as models for investigating the various lines of treatment and their effect, e.g., cancer, cystic fibrosis, rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer's disease.
3. Biological Products.
Biological products are useful in treating certain human diseases. They are often very expensive. These expensive biological products can be produced in good quantity in transgenic animals by inserting genes for these products into them. Usually milch animals are used for this purpose so that the biological product is available in their milk and from which the same can be extracted and purified. The process is called molecular farming or molecular harvesting. The important biological products being harvested by this method are protein a-1 antitrypsin for treating emphysema, tissue plasminogen activator (goat), blood clotting factors VIII and IX (sheep) and lactoferrin (cow). Attempts are under way to treat phenylketonuria (PKU) and cystic fibrosis by biological products.4. Vaccine Safety Testing.
Transgenic animals are the best for checking the safety of vaccines before their use in humans. Polio vaccine is being tested on transgenic mice. Other vaccines can also be tested transgenic mice. This will replace monkeys which are currently used in testing safety of vaccine batches5. Chemical Safety Testing.
Transgenic animals are made more sensitive to toxic substance compared to non transgenic animals. They are then used in studying the effect of toxic chemicals.6. Rapid Growth.
Introduction of growth promoting genes in domesticated animals has made them to grow quickly. As a result sheep can produce more mutton while fish have doubled their sizes. This increases the return to the owners.7. Wool.
A transgenic sheep with bacterial genes for synthesis of amino acid cysteine has higher yield of wool. Cysteine is raw material for the same.8. Milk.
Transgenic cattle with extra genes for growth hormones and casein give very high yield of milk. In 1997, the first transgenic cow, Rosie, yielded milk with high protein content (2-4 g/litre) having human alpha lactalbumin. It is more nutritionally balanced for human babies than natural cow milk.9. Transgenic Pigs.
Transgenic pigs having human genes possess human antigens. As a result their organs if transplanted do not produce any reaction. It will eliminate the requirement of human organs for transplantation, o.f., pancreas, kidney, heart.
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