The world's first transgenic puppies glow red

A group of scientists from the National University of Seoul led by Byeong-Chun Lee (Byeong-Chun Lee) for the first time in the world achieved the birth of genetically modified dogs glowing bright red under ultraviolet radiation. 

Cloning of dogs was carried out by the usual (recently) "Dolly method" – the transfer of the cell nucleus of fibroblasts into a denucleated egg. Dr. Lee has a lot of experience in this field: back in 2005, he participated in the first successful experiment on cloning a dog – the Afghan hound Snoopy – under the leadership of the infamous Wu Suk Hwan.

Dogs have been cloned repeatedly since then, but this time, before the transfer of the nucleus, the fibroblast culture was infected with a modified retrovirus with an embedded gene of the red fluorescent anemone protein. In fact, it was not the gene itself, but its RNA matrix: the genome of retroviruses consists of RNA, on which the genes themselves are synthesized in the host cell - DNA sequences – and embedded in chromosomes.

Retroviral vectors have many advantages and one, but very significant drawback: they embed their genes anywhere – for example, in the middle of the nucleotide sequence of a vital gene, which can lead to the death of an infected cell or its malignant degeneration. Perhaps the use of retroviruses explains the relatively low cloning efficiency in this experiment – 1.7%. It is not reported how many eggs scientists used to transfer the nucleus, but 344 of them began to develop and were implanted in 20 dogs. Only seven successfully took root in the wombs of surrogate mothers, one died during pregnancy, and one of the six puppies born died before they were three months old – due to an accident. The remaining five, according to the researchers, are healthy and developing normally.

The two pictures on the right show the first dog out of five, who was named Ruppy (from ruby puppy – ruby puppy), at the age of ten days. Under normal lighting, the red color is almost invisible, but in ultraviolet…

Fluorescent protein, as in most cases of creating glowing animals, is not an end in itself. Thus, scientists are working out methods of transferring genes into animal cells that carry signs necessary for practical or scientific purposes. Transgenic dogs will be able to become models of many human diseases that, for various reasons, are difficult or impossible to study on genetically modified mice – in particular, narcolepsy and many forms of blindness and cancer.

Now the creators of luminous dogs plan to continue research in different directions: to achieve a controlled transfer of target genes to a specific, not random place on chromosomes, try to apply their method to other animals, including cows and pigs, and to start with dogs, try to knock out the estrogen receptor gene in order to study its effect on reproductive ability in more detail females.

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru according to New Scientist: Fluorescent puppy is the world's first transgenic dog

24.04.2009