Chapters authored
The Use of Reproductive Technologies to Produce Transgenic Goats
Recombinant DNA technology has revolutionized the production of therapeutic proteins. Thus, genes of a great number of human proteins have already been identified and cloned. The use of farm animals as bioreactors may be the better choice to produce recombinant therapeutic proteins. For this activity, the term “pharming” was created, referring to the use of genetic engineering to obtain a transgenic or genetically modified animal. Considering the advantages and disadvantages of livestock species, goats appear as a very good model. In addition, the first human commercially approved biological drug (antithrombin (AT)) was produced from the milk of transgenic goats. The aim of this chapter is to present various reproductive technologies used to obtain transgenic goats secreting recombinant proteins in milk. Initially, this chapter presents the methods for embryo production (in vivo and in vitro) to realize the DNA microinjection in pronuclear embryos. Thus, the techniques of superovulation of donors (in vivo embryo production) and ovarian stimulation for oocyte recovery (in vitro embryo production) are described. Also, the methods for DNA microinjection and embryo transfer are detailed in this chapter. Finally, this chapter describes the reproductive procedures used for obtaining transgenic goats by cloning.
Part of the book: Insights from Animal Reproduction