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Science 27 November 1998:
Vol. 282. no. 5394, p. 1619
DOI: 10.1126/science.282.5394.1619a
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News of the Week

BIOTECHNOLOGY:
Improving Gene Transfer Into Livestock

Anne Simon Moffat

Current methods for introducing new genes into cattle and other livestock have a low efficiency--no more than 10% at best. But in the 24 November issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers report on a new method for producing such transgenic animals that approaches 100% efficiency at passing on the foreign gene. They achieved this by introducing a foreign gene into cow eggs before they were fertilized rather than shortly after, as is currently done. The increased efficiency should be welcome news to researchers who want to introduce genes into livestock, either to improve the strains or to use the animals to produce medically valuable proteins such as monoclonal antibodies or vaccine proteins, and could even make cloning of livestock obsolete.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)