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Knockout mouse technology. Summary of the procedures used for making gene replacements in mice. In the first step (A), an altered version of the gene
is introduced into cultured embryonic stem (ES) cells. Only a few rare ES cells will have their corresponding normal genes replaced by the altered gene
through a homologous recombination event. Although the procedure is often laborious, these rare cells can be identified and cultured to produce many
descendants, each of which carries an altered gene in place of one of its two normal corresponding genes. In the next step of the procedure (B), these
altered ES cells are injected into a very early mouse embryo; the cells are incorporated into the growing embryo, and a mouse produced by such an
embryo will contain some somatic cells that carry the altered gene. Some of these mice also will contain germline cells that contain the altered gene. When
Source: Molecular and Genomic Surgery, Schwartz's Principles of Surgery, 10e
bred with a normal mouse, some of the progeny of these mice will contain the altered gene in all of their cells. If two such mice are in turn bred (not
Citation:
F, Andersen
DK,altered
Billiar TR,
Dunn
DL,
Matthews JB,
Pollock
RE.cells.
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progeny will
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Available
at:
http://mhmedical.com/
Accessed:
April
30,
2017
inactivates the function of the gene, these mice are known as knockout mice. When such mice are missing genes that function during development, they
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McGraw-Hill
Education.
All rights reserved
often die withCopyright
specific defects
before they
reach adulthood.
These defects are carefully analyzed to help decipher the normal function of the missing
gene. (Republished with permission of Garland Publishing, Inc. from Alberts B, Johnson A, Lewis J, et al. Molecular Biology of the Cell, 5th ed. New York: