Advanced Technology in Transgenic Animals

Transgenesis may involve whole organisms, rather than individual cells and in vivo alteration of body function. Introduction of foreign DNA into the mouse germ line is considered as major technical advancement in the fields of developmental biology and genetics. This technology now referred to as transgenic mouse technology has revolutionized virtually in all fields of biology and provided new genetic approaches to model many human diseases in a whole animal context. Several hundreds of transgenic lines with expression of foreign genes specifically targeted to desired organelles/cells/tissues have been characterized. Further, the ability to spatio-temporally inactivate or activate gene expression in vivo using the "Cre-lox" technology has recently emerged as a powerful approach to understand various developmental processes including those relevant to molecular endocrinology. Transgenic animal technologies 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. Transgenic animals have been genetically modified.