The animal transgenesis and its applications

Authors
Citation
Lm. Houdebine, The animal transgenesis and its applications, B S ZOOL FR, 126(3), 2001, pp. 245-254
Citations number
22
Language
FRANCESE
art.tipo
Article
Categorie Soggetti
Animal Sciences
Journal title
BULLETIN DE LA SOCIETE ZOOLOGIQUE DE FRANCE
ISSN journal
0037-962X → ACNP
Volume
126
Issue
3
Year of publication
2001
Pages
245 - 254
Database
ISI
SICI code
0037-962X(2001)126:3<245:TATAIA>2.0.ZU;2-B
Abstract
The obtention of the first transgenic animals in 1980-1982 was a logical fo llowing to the works aiming at isolating genes and transferring them into c ultured cells to study their mechanism and their role in thecontrol of biol ogical functions. The transfer of a gene into an animal corresponds its rei ntroduction in the complex environment of a whole living organism. Although transgenesis still suffers from technical imperfections, it is an invaluab le and unique tool for biologists and biotechnologists who develop projects in medicine and agronomy. The main problems of transgenesis are the relati vely low yield of transgenic generation and the ill-controled expression of the transgenes. Moreover, transgenesis has intrinsic limits which are due to the complexity of the living organisms. Introducing a foreign gene in e genome or inactivating an endogenous gene consists in adding or subtracting an information in the exceedingly complex network formed by the multiple i nteractions between the different genes and gene products. Despite the limi tation, transgenesis is more and more used by experimenters. The complete s equencing of several genomes, including human genome, urges to implement tr ansgenesis systematically to define the function of the newly discovered an d unknown genes.