Genetically modified mice-successes and failures of a widely used technology.
Genetically modified mice, created by random integration of a transgene into the genome or by targeted mutation of a specific gene, have proven to be extremely powerful tools for studying gene function in vivo. In this article, we give (1) a short overview of the traditional methods in mouse transgenesis and (2) a discussion of the problems with these methods, (3) more recent methods that were developed to overcome these problems, and (4) an outlook on future directions in gene targeting.
Castrop
Hayo
H
Institute of Physiology, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstr. 31, 93040 Regensburg, Germany. hayo@castrop.com
D017398:Alternative Splicing; D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D020868:Gene Silencing; D018390:Gene Targeting / Q000379:methods*; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D016678:Genome; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D034622:RNA Interference; D019076:Transgenes