Chapter 21
Transgenie Animals
ECKART SCHOTT, MARTIN PAUL AND DETLEV GANTEN
lntroduction
In recent years, the roles of genes involved in the pathogenesis of numerous
diseases have been elucidated. Several of these genes have been sufficiently
well characterized to permit experiments in vivo by introducing genomie
fragments or DNA-constructs into animals. Thesetransgenie animals can
then become valuable models that offer new approaches to understand the
genetie basis of disease. Some of the possible strategies in transgenie animal
research are the expression of homologous or heterologous genes under
their endogenous promoter, the expression of a reporter gene under a specific promoter or the tissue-specific expression using tissue-specific cis-acting regulatory elements. Another possibility is the generation of gene
"knock-outs" using homologous recombination in embryonie stem cells.
In general, transgenie techniques can be applied to many species. Until
now miee have been used most extensively since the mouse genome has
been investigated in detail and mieroinjection into mouse oocytes does
not cause significant technieal difficulties. In some cases rats may be the
more appropriate model, because they offer several advantages over
miee. One advantageisthat rats can be easily characterized using the methodological approaches of whole animal physiology and pharmacology,
whieh are more difficult to perform in miee, whieh are smaller in size.
Experimental approaches in transgenic research
Transgenie animals can be used to study different experimental questions.
First, transgenie lines can be established with the purpose of adding an adEckart Schott, Martin Paul, Correspondence to Detlev Ganten, Max-Delbrück-Center for
Molecular Medicine, Robert Rössle Straße 10, Berlin, 13122, Germany (phone +01-309406-3278; fax +0 1-30-949-7008; e-mail dganten@mdc-berlin.de)
Transgenie Animals
ECKART SCHOTT, MARTIN PAUL AND DETLEV GANTEN
lntroduction
In recent years, the roles of genes involved in the pathogenesis of numerous
diseases have been elucidated. Several of these genes have been sufficiently
well characterized to permit experiments in vivo by introducing genomie
fragments or DNA-constructs into animals. Thesetransgenie animals can
then become valuable models that offer new approaches to understand the
genetie basis of disease. Some of the possible strategies in transgenie animal
research are the expression of homologous or heterologous genes under
their endogenous promoter, the expression of a reporter gene under a specific promoter or the tissue-specific expression using tissue-specific cis-acting regulatory elements. Another possibility is the generation of gene
"knock-outs" using homologous recombination in embryonie stem cells.
In general, transgenie techniques can be applied to many species. Until
now miee have been used most extensively since the mouse genome has
been investigated in detail and mieroinjection into mouse oocytes does
not cause significant technieal difficulties. In some cases rats may be the
more appropriate model, because they offer several advantages over
miee. One advantageisthat rats can be easily characterized using the methodological approaches of whole animal physiology and pharmacology,
whieh are more difficult to perform in miee, whieh are smaller in size.
Experimental approaches in transgenic research
Transgenie animals can be used to study different experimental questions.
First, transgenie lines can be established with the purpose of adding an adEckart Schott, Martin Paul, Correspondence to Detlev Ganten, Max-Delbrück-Center for
Molecular Medicine, Robert Rössle Straße 10, Berlin, 13122, Germany (phone +01-309406-3278; fax +0 1-30-949-7008; e-mail dganten@mdc-berlin.de)