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New life for sperm-mediated transgenesis?

Nature Biotechnology volume 17, pages 636–637 (1999)Cite this article

Reading the recent paper by Matthew Perry et al.1, "Mammalian Transgenesis by Intracytoplasmic Sperm Injection," brought back memories from the early 1980s when Ralph Brinster and Richard Palmiter injected a foreign gene construct into the pronuclei of mouse embryos and produced offspring that had a rather obvious phenotypic alteration2. The still-classic picture on the front cover of Nature showed a control mouse dwarfed by its massive genetically altered brother. This startling scientific breakthrough generated tremendous public interest and the view that elephant-sized cows would be roaming pastures in the Midwest in just a few short years.

We have now been waiting nearly 20 years and have still not seen these gigantic cows. Making a predictable and beneficial alteration in the phenotype of an animal by randomly inserting a single foreign gene into its genome is, understandably, not an easy thing to do. Furthermore, the technique of pronuclear microinjection has proved difficult and horribly inefficient in species other than the mouse. Consequently, work such as that reported by Perry et al. has continued the development of improved systems for inserting genes into animals.

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Figure 1: Trangenesis by intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

References

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  1. professor in the department of veterinary and animal sciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 01003, MA

    James M. Robl

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  1. James M. Robl
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Robl, J. New life for sperm-mediated transgenesis?. Nat Biotechnol 17, 636–637 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/10846

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