Sperm, transgenic instrument

1999/09/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Biologia

The first transgenic sperm have recently appeared in the Honolulu laboratory of Ryuzo Yanagimachi.

For this purpose, male burlados-gametes with plant gene are used. For them to become transgenic, Hawaii biologists, after removing the membrane from the sperm, immerse them in the grains of a marker plant gene. The embryos thus obtained are transplanted: 20% of the mice born have a foreign gene.

This method may be more interesting than cloning for transgenic animals. 1.