Thread: Replace animal's gene

Is there a way to replace one gene of an animal with a gene from other animal ? I mean for example one mouse has myostatin gene mutation. Mouse does not produce myostatin. Another mouse has normal myostatin gene. Is there any way to remove that normal gene and put mutated myostatin gene in its place ??

And is it possible to make that change heritable ??

And is it possible with big animals (like in Ina Dobrinski study) ??

Is it possible to do such thing with a zygote ?

You seem to be talking about gene knockouts in this case, and yes, this is possible.

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/m.../2007/adv.html

"Cre-lox technology can also be used to replace an existing gene with another one [48]. Such "knock-in" has been used e.g. to replace murine immunoglobulin or MHC genes with human ones in order to "humanize" the mouse with regard to immune function. It has also been used to replace an allele with another one, the latter for instance being an allele suspected to cause disease."

I've seen stuff like this on the news for some time now and is not really new. One such was pig with some sea creature gene that made it's nose glow in the dark.

the first insertion of foreign DNA into an organism was probably done 40 years or so ago.

Maybe, but insertion of foreign gene is easier than gene knockout. You may insert a gene, but it will be in a random place of genome. By gene knockout you can replace specific gene.

Originally Posted by Siemowit

Maybe, but insertion of foreign gene is easier than gene knockout. You may insert a gene, but it will be in a random place of genome. By gene knockout you can replace specific gene.

No, you just disable it in a knockout. you don't replace it.

What actually is difficult is to make a complex construct such as a tamoxifen inducible cre-line with GFP under a specific promotor.

The theory is simple I guess, but to get one working perfectly always requires a bit of luck. Hence people always make multiple lines and see which one is best.

Ok my mistake. Technology of gene knockout was introduced with the technologdy of knockdown and finally knockin. Knock in technology enables scientists to replace a gene.

Then can we change the panda's gene to make it give up eating bamboo and become omnivorous?

Originally Posted by ttyo888

Then can we change the panda's gene to make it give up eating bamboo and become omnivorous?

We already have those. They are called Ursus arctos.