ABSTRACT
The use of transgenic animals in biological and biomedical research has become widespread in recent years. The animal of choice for transgenic work is the mouse. Mice are cheap, require little space, breed quickly, and their genetics have been well characterised. Transferring it via the gametes produces mice with one stable copy of the mutant gene. Interbreeding of heterozygotes will produce mice that have two copies of the mutated gene. Subsequent interbreeding of the chimaera’s offspring will retain this mixed genetic background unless at some point the offspring are bred with the same strain of mouse that the embryonic stem cells came from, in this case 129SV mice. The applications are numerous, ranging from the generation of animal models for known human genetic disorders, to understanding the elements that control tissue specific expression of the genes in the developing animal. The screening is based upon drug selection using geneticin and ganciclovir over a period of ten days.
