Of mice and mutants: target size and sensitivity

摘要

Transgenic animal systems with reporter trans-genes for mutation detection hold great promise for the field of genetic toxicology. Several laboratories are presently working to characterize the response of transgenic systems including Big Blue~(TM) and Muta-mouse~(TM) using model mutagens and carcinogens. Our laboratory and others have begun to ask, 'How does the mutational response of a transgene compare with that of an endogenous gene'? This is a fundamentally important question since it is hoped that transgenes will serve as surrogates to reflect muta-genic events occurring at native genes.