Submit Article |Resources | Link to us | Sitemap | Search | Language
Back to Home
Home >> Transfection Methods and Transgenic Animals >> Transfection Methods and Transgenic Animals
Back to Home

Transfection Methods and Transgenic Animals - We discussed the methods used for cell, tissue and organ culture in animals. Although, there is a variety of applications of animal cell and tissue culture, one of its important application also involves transfer of foreign genes into our livestock.

In organisms like bacteria and other microbes, or even in higher plants, the uptake of genes by cells is often described by the term 'transformation'. However in animals this term has been replaced by the term 'transfection', because the term 'transformation' in animal cell culture is used to describe phenotypic alteration of cells.

The usage of the term 'transformation' for 'cell alteration' has been unfortunate and discontinuation of its usage for this purpose is suggested.

Transfection or gene transfer in animals may be carried out at the cellular level to get transfected cells, which may be used for a variety of purposes such as production of chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs.

It may also be undertaken for basic studies involving study of structure 'and function of genes. Although many mammalian cell lines have been regularly utilized for these purposes, transfection has also been achieved successfully for the production of transgenic animals.

The improvement in livestock through transgenesis has already led to the following encouraging results:

(i) increased milk production in cattle;

(ii) increased growth rate of livestock and fish

(iii) large scale production of valuable proteins in milk, urine and blood, of livestock, enabling the use of transgenic animals as 'bioreactors' for 'molecular farming'.

(iv) improvement of wool production through production of transgenic sheep.

These encouraging results have made transfection and production of transgenic animals a fascinating thrust area of research. In this, different methods of transfection and other aspects of transgenesis in animals will be discussed.
 

 
Submit Article |Resources | Link to us | Sitemap | Search | Language
English|Français|Español|Deutsch|Italiano|Portugues|Japanese|Korean|Sim-Chinese| Language