Vol. 7, Issue 3 (2018)

Author(s):
Madhumita Sahoo, Chinmoy Mishra, Siddharth Sankar Sabat, Lipilekha Swain, Manaswini Mandal, Priyanka Priyadarshini and Gangadhar Nayak

Abstract:
Genetically modified organisms are created in the laboratory to amplify desired characteristics which are beneficial to mankind. Work on transgenic expression systems using animals began in the early 1980s for improving the genetic characteristics of livestock. Transgenic animals acquire genetic material (from another species) through human intervention rather than through normal sexual reproduction. Transgenic animals are used to increase production efficiency of farm animals in a short duration, to produce medicines, nutraceuticals and tissues for transplant into human, to introduce a desired property as animal model for human diseases and to use as xeno-transplantates. The genetic material can be inserted to gonads or germ cells or fertilized ovum or somatic cells. Different methods like DNA microinjection, embryonic stem cell method, retrovirus mediated transfer etc are used to produce transgenic animals.