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Transgene vectors go retro

Nature Biotechnology volume 17, pages 25–26 (1999)Cite this article

Ironically, the latest technique for producing transgenic cattle is based on a retroviral vector strategy reminiscent of that employed two decades ago to produce the first genetically engineered animals. In a recent issue of Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Anthony Chan, working with Robert Bremel and others1, report a clever twist on an existing retroviral approach for introducing foreign genes into mammalian genomes. By transfecting unfertilized bovine oocytes with a retroviral vector, they efficiently produced animals containing transgenes in all their cells. More importantly, the resultant dramatic increase in transgenesis rate could have far–reaching implications for the production of transgenic livestock.

Jon Gordon2 is usually credited with inventing transgenic technology. Indeed, he both developed the widely used pronuclear microinjection method of genetic engineering and coined the term "transgenic." It was Rudy Jaenisch3,however, who first intentionally introduced a foreign gene into a mammalian genome with the goal of passing the new gene to offspring. This was accomplished by infecting mouse embryos with retroviruses. Subsequently, this retroviral approach was supplanted by pronuclear microinjection because of the technical difficulties of building defective retrovirus vectors and the tendency of genetically engineered animals to contain transgenes in only a portion of their cells. This mosaicism is particularly problematic because the transgenes are often missing from gametes.

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Figure 1: Technologies for generating transgenic farm animals.

References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. staff scientists in the US Department of Agriculture, Gene Evaluation and Mapping Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, Beltsville, MD

    Kevin Wells & Robert Wall

  2. research associate in the same laboratory,

    Karen Moore

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  1. Kevin Wells
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  2. Karen Moore
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  3. Robert Wall
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Wells, K., Moore, K. & Wall, R. Transgene vectors go retro. Nat Biotechnol 17, 25–26 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/5196

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