Production and analysis of transgenic mice bearing the higher plant gene

摘要

One of the more exciting approaches for transgenic engineering of domestic animals is the possibility of altering intermediary metabolism to increase the available products in the biochemical pathways. Now, we have focused, on the synthesis of polyunsaturated fatty acids in mammals. Mammals lack triangle open 12 and triangle open 15-desaturases, which convert oleic acid (18:1 n-9) and linoleic acid (18:2 n-6) acids to linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid (18:3 n-3), respectively. Consequently, both linoleic and alpha-linolenic acids need to be supplied as dietary essential fatty acids in mammals. Up to this time, we observed the expression of triangle open 12 desaturase in three lines of transgenic mice bearing Spinacia endoplasmic reticulum-localized FAD2 gene fused to three independent promoters. These findings suggest that functional expression of a plant-originated triangle open 12 acyl-lipid desaturase gene can alter the biosynthetic pathway of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in mammals.