Transgenic animal technology: Recent advances and applications: A Review

Transgenic animal technologies are one of the fastest growing techniques in the biotechnology areas. It is used to incorporate exogenous genes into the animal genome by genetic engineering technology so that these genes can be inherited and expressed by offspring. Two fundamental determinants of the success of any transgenic exploitation of a livestock species are the transport of DNA across the plasma membrane of the recipient cell, and the transport of that DNA across the nuclear membrane to gain access to the chromosomes. A variety of transgenic technologies are available like microinjection method, chemical method mediated transgenesis, somatic cell nuclear transfer, restriction enzyme-mediated integration, retrovirus-mediated gene transfer, sperm mediated gene transfer and embryonic stem cell mediated method etc. Use of transgenic animals will provide solutions for drug research, xenotransplantation, disease resistance and tissue repair etc. This review focuses on various methods of transgenesis and its application.