ABSTRACT

Since the emergence of recombinant DNA technology about 40 years ago, genetic engineering has been applied to every class of organism from single cell prokaryotes to plants and animals (DePamphilis et al. 1988; Rexroad et al. 1990). Today, genetic engineering impacts almost every facet of biology and is an essential tool for biomedical research, pharmaceutical development, agriculture, and food production. Meat science, taken broadly to include preharvest animal production, postharvest processing, and value-added product development, can also take advantage of the advances in transgenic technology to provide a means of understanding the biology of muscle, the efcient production of muscle-meats, and new approaches toward improving meat quality for the consumer. At the same time, direct application to the production of genetically engineered animal food products has been slow and to-date none have been approved to enter the human food chain. However, the anticipated demand for animal protein will increase globally, particularly in developing nations, and transgenic technology will play a part in animal food production systems of the

14.1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 417 14.2 Transgenic Animal Technology .................................................................... 418

14.2.1 Mammals .......................................................................................... 418 14.2.2 Poultry .............................................................................................. 418 14.2.3 Fish.................................................................................................... 418

14.3 Muscle Mass and Growth ............................................................................. 420 14.3.1 Growth Hormone .............................................................................. 420 14.3.2 Myostatin .......................................................................................... 421

14.4 Fat Content/Composition .............................................................................. 422 14.4.1 FAT-1 Gene ....................................................................................... 423

14.5 Extending Shelf Life .....................................................................................424 14.6 Regulation of Transgenic Meat .....................................................................424 14.7 Conclusions ................................................................................................... 425 Acknowledgments .................................................................................................. 425 References .............................................................................................................. 425

future. The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of animal transgenic technology in food production, and its potential applications to meat science. This will cover basic approaches toward making transgenic animals used in muscle-food production and include mammals, birds, and sh. In addition, it will also address current efforts to produce meat with better quality. Finally, consideration will be given to the regulatory demands of incorporating transgenic animal protein into human food systems.