转基因克隆牛

台湾大学农学院畜产学系科研人员用细胞核移植技术生产转基因克隆牛。其方法 :将受胎牛成纤维母细胞和卵丘细胞 ,经用电穿孔法把带有牛乳蛋白启动子 (α LA)序列与胞外岐氧化酶素 (ECSOD)的cDNA融合基因整合到其基因组 (genome)后 ,待 1月筛选并经PCR测试 ,证明已成功建立初代培养的两种供核细胞 ;另外应用这种携带有αLA ECSOD基因的受胎牛成纤维母细胞和牛卵丘细胞分别为供核源 ,经移植生产转基因克隆牛囊胚 ,试验结果共获 4 0个正常牛囊胚 ,其效率为 2 6 .7% (4 0 / 14 8)。将其中 2 0个源自核移植生产的囊胚移植于 13头受胚牛后…     

热烈祝贺《动物学报》创刊70周年——莱阳农学院动物胚胎工程中心科研成果简介

2001年11月3日和6日,中国首例和第二例健康成活的体细胞克隆牛“康康”和“双双”在山东莱阳农学院动物胚胎工程中心实验场诞生。该项目是由山东省教育厅重大科研项目“克隆牛技术的研究（J01H06）”和莱阳农学院“克隆牛技术的研究（Y0006）”课题资助,研究出的体细胞克隆牛技术与国际上其他克隆牛技术相比,其创新点是：     

初乳中乳腺上皮细胞体细胞克隆牛的诞生

《日经生物技术》１９９９年５月１０日第１５页报道：雪印乳业公司４月２６日宣布,来自初乳中乳腺上皮细胞的体细胞克隆牛诞生了。来自初乳中乳腺上皮细胞的体细胞克隆牛诞生也是世界首例。该公司受精卵移植研究所的研究组将含于黑白花荷兰牛种牛（雌牛）乳中的乳腺上皮细胞移植到除核的未受精卵中。核移植等实验方法使用的是英国Ｒｏｓｌｉｎ研究所的在血清饥饿状态下培养细胞的方法。移植给８头受胚牛时,确认３头妊娠,其中１头妊娠到第１５７天流产。１头于４月２０日（第２７９日）剖腹,另１头于４月２１日（第２８０天）人工分娩各…     

日本首例1卵产4头犊牛获成功

全国农业协同组合(JA全农)4月17日宣布,日本首例1卵产4头犊牛获得成功。这4头犊牛中克隆2头、亚克隆(2次反复核移植的)2头。预计今秋还有2组能生产含亚克隆(经过8次反复核移植的)牛的5头犊牛。使用核移植技术的克隆牛生产技术正稳步地进入实用化。     

血清孕酮水平检测在克隆胚胎移植受体牛的筛选及妊娠诊断中的应用

目的:孕酮(progesterone,P4)作为一种生殖激素,在牛的发情期和妊娠期呈规律性变化,且在妊娠的建立和维持过程中发挥着重要作用。拟应用孕酮浓度测定辅助人工观察筛选克隆胚胎移植受体牛并监测其整个妊娠过程。方法:通过对自然配种牛不同生殖阶段血液中孕酮水平的分析,建立其在发情初期、妊娠期孕酮浓度的变化规律,以此为依据辅助人工观察筛选适合胚胎移植的受体牛。同时将在体外培养7天后的体细胞核移植重构囊胚移植到所筛选出的同期发情的受体牛子宫内,并应用孕酮测定监测其妊娠状态。实验结果:(1)运用孕酮检测筛选克隆胚胎移植受体牛时,当孕酮浓度在发情第0天和第5天分别为≤0.64nmol/L和2～8nmol/L时,适宜作为胚胎移植受体牛,根据此筛选指标能够排除50%左右假发情牛。(2)运用孕酮检测较传统的人工观察方法,胚胎移植的克隆牛出生率提高了7.1倍。结论:运用牛血清孕酮检测方法能有效提高母牛生理周期判断的准确性,有利于选择合适的胚胎移植受体牛,既能实时、有效地监测怀孕受体牛的妊娠状态,又避免了靠人工观察受体牛返情、流产时的人为疏漏和误判,有效地提高受体牛的利用率,提高克隆牛的生产效率,并能推广应用于畜牧行业牛的生产繁育中。     

转基因克隆牛胎盘中印迹基因PEG10的DNA甲基化水平

低效率的体细胞核移植技术显著制约着该技术在转基因动物生产上的广泛应用。目前认为供体细胞核不能被受体卵母细胞胞质完全的表观重编程是其效率低下的最主要原因,而DNA甲基化是基因表观修饰的主要方式之一。为了探求转基因克隆牛的死亡是否与其胎盘中印迹基因的甲基化的重编程程度相关,文章通过亚硫酸氢盐测序法(Bisulfite sequencing PCR,BSP)和亚硫酸氢盐联合限制性内切酶分析法(Combined bisulfite restriction analysis,COBRA),对印迹基因PEG10在围产期死亡且存在发育缺陷的转基因克隆牛的胎盘(死亡组)和存活的转基因克隆牛的胎盘(存活组)与正常对照牛胎盘(对照组)的DNA甲基化水平进行了详细的比较。结果发现,与对照组相比,PEG10基因在死亡组上表现出异常的超甲基化水平,而存活组与对照组相比无显著性差异。研究结果显示,胎盘中印迹基因的DNA甲基化表观重编程不彻底可能是导致转基因克隆牛发育异常进而死亡的主要原因之一。     

牛体细胞核移植显微操作环节的优化

本研究从牛卵母细胞去核方法(纺锤体观测仪法&Hoechst33342染色法)、供体细胞核引入去核卵细胞质的方法(卵细胞质注射法和电融合法)和重构胚胎电融合(3组参数)等3个环节对牛体细胞核移植的显微操作过程及相关参数进行了筛选优化。以核移植胚胎的卵裂率、囊胚发育率作为检测指标,对不同的方法所获得的克隆胚胎的卵分裂率与囊胚发育率进行比较,最后筛选获得1个优化的牛体细胞核移植操作程序,即采用Spindle view系统对牛卵母细胞进行去核操作,将供核体细胞注射到卵周隙,然后通过电融合法将供体核引入去核卵细胞质(电融合参数为1.9kV/cm,脉冲时程10μs,方波2次间隔2s)。以此核移植程序进行牛体细胞核移植实验,自获得克隆胚胎中筛选80枚优质囊胚移植到33头受体牛子宫内,最后2头母牛产下2头克隆牛犊,结果表明利用该优化的显微操作环节进行牛体细胞核移植可以获得体细胞克隆牛犊。     

microRNA-483和microRNA-486在克隆和转fat-1基因牛组织中的表达

利用荧光定量PCR比较正常受精牛、克隆牛和转基因牛的心、肝、脾、肺、肾、胎盘、子叶、子宫内膜中miR-483和miR-486的表达水平。结果显示,miR-483和miR-486在正常受精牛、克隆牛和转fat-1基因牛的组织中均有表达,其中在心脏中表达量显著高于其他组织。而转fat-1基因牛心脏中miR-483和miR-486表达量均低于正常牛。miR-483和miR-486在不同组织中表达量存在一定差异,在心脏中呈现高表达,提示miR-483和miR-486表达降低可能与心肌肥大、心肌梗死等病理生理过程有关。     

我国首次获得成年体细胞克隆牛群体

中国自主完成的首批成年体细胞克隆牛于2 0 0 2年 1月中旬到 2月中旬陆续降生 ,12头怀孕的受体母牛共产下了 14头克隆牛犊 ,现存活 5头(见封面 ) ,实现了我国成年体细胞克隆牛成活群体零的突破 ,标志着我国科研人员已完全掌握了世界一流的体细胞克隆牛技术 ,使我国成为继日本 (1998)、新西兰 (1998)、美国 (2 0 0 0 )等国家之后掌握体细胞克隆牛关键技术的少数国家之一。体细胞克隆牛研究是国家自然科学基金委员会的重点项目“家畜体细胞无性繁殖研究”的一部分 ,项目的首席专家是中国科学院动物研究所陈大元研究员。该项研究由中国科学院动…     

肾上腺髓质脑移植能改变痛觉感受

最近,Illinois 大学的 Sagen 等采用肾上腺嗜铬细胞脑移植的方法,试图改变病觉感受。选用肾上腺嗜铬细胞作为移植物是由于这些细胞可释放去甲肾上腺素、肾上腺素、甲硫-脑啡肽、亮-脑啡肽及其它神经肽等活性物质,从而作用于中枢神经系统调节痛敏。达些活性物质的释放可被类似于尼古丁样的药物激活。首先将成年大鼠的肾上腺髓质组织颗粒或牛肾上腺嗜铬细胞定位注入大鼠中脑中央导水管周围灰质部位,然后分别在1、2、4和8周时间内皮下注射低剂量尼古丁(0.1mg/kg)以刺激移植细胞释放神经活性物质;     

Induction of a senescent-like phenotype does not confer the ability of bovine immortal cells to support the development of nuclear transfer embryos

Previously, we reported that cloned embryos derived from an immortalized bovine mammary epithelial cell line (MECL) failed to develop beyond 12- to 16-cell stage. To analyze whether induction of a senescent-like phenotype in MECL can improve their ability to support the development after transfer into enucleated oocytes, we treated MECL with DNA methylation inhibitor 5-aza-2-deoxycytidine (Aza-C), histone deacetylase inhibitors trichostatin A (TSA), sodium butyrate (NaBu), or 5-bromodeoxyuridine and used those cells for nuclear transfer. Primary bovine fetal fibroblasts (BFF) were used as control. All agents were capable to induce features of senescence including reduced cell proliferation, enlarged cell size with a considerable proportion of cells stained positive for acidic senescence-associated beta-galactosidase and G1/S cell cycle boundary arrest in MECL. Aza-C treatment induced genome demethylation. Acetylation of H3 and H4 was increased after TSA treatment in both MECL and BFF, whereas no obvious changes in global H3 or H4 acetylation were detected after NaBu treatment. Nuclear transfer experiments following diverse treatments demonstrated that the induced senescent-like phenotype of MECL did not confer their ability to support embryonic development, although 7.3% of reconstructed embryos derived from NaBu-treated cells developed to morula stage. Intriguingly, a much higher proportion of cloned embryos developed to blastocysts when using NaBu-treated BFF, compared with using untreated BFF (59% versus 26%). Our results suggest that the developmental failure of donor nuclei from bovine immortal cells could not be reversed by induction of senescent-like phenotype. The beneficial effect of NaBu on the developmental potential of cloned embryos reconstructed from BFF merits further studies.     

Production of a cloned calf using zona-free serial nuclear transfer

The efficiency of generating cloned animals following somatic cell nuclear transfer appears to have reached a plateau, despite ongoing research to improve developmental outcomes. A major limitation appears in the restricted nature of the adult/donor cell to de-differentiate to form a totipotent nucleus. Serial nuclear transfer, a modified cloning technique, has increased the developmental competence of amphibian, murine and porcine cloned embryos. This procedure involves a second nuclear transfer step; pronuclear-like cloned nuclei are transferred into pronuclear stage zygotic cytoplasts. The present study reports on the development of a serial nuclear transfer technique in the bovine, based on a zona-free method (hand-made cloning), resulting in the birth of a cloned calf. Comparisons were made between embryos produced by hand-made cloning and serial nuclear transfer. There were no differences between in vitro development or differential cell counts in the blastocysts produced. Transfer of 16 serial hand-made cloned blastocysts resulted in the production of one healthy calf (6%), whereas hand-made cloning resulted in the birth of 1 calf from 23 transferred blastocysts (4%). One serial nuclear transfer pre-term fetus had renal and hepatic abnormalities (previously observed in clones from this cell line). Although it may not be as beneficial in the bovine as in other species, normal placentation (size, placentomes and umbilicus) was encouraging. Refinement of this technique may help to identify species-specific differences in zygotic competence that affect reprogramming of donor cell nuclei and that may improve efficiency.     

Generation of normal progeny by intracytoplasmic sperm injection following grafting of testicular tissue from cloned mice that died postnatally

Animal cloning by nuclear transfer has been successful in several species and was expected to become an alternative reproductive technique. Among the problems associated with this cloning technique, however, are its low success rate and high mortality of cloned animals even if they develop to term. Nuclear transfer has thus come to be considered too difficult to apply as a reproductive technique. The transplantation of male germ cells or pieces of testicular tissue has enabled the induction of spermatogenesis from fetal or postnatal male mice. In the present study, we examined whether functional male gametes could be obtained by the transplantation of pieces of testicular tissue from cloned mice that died immediately after birth with typical aberrant phenotypes, such as large offspring syndrome. Donor testicular tissues were retrieved from cloned mice that died postnatally and were transplanted into the testes of recipient nude mice. Two to three months after transplantation, the grafted donor testicular tissue had grown in the host testis, and histological analysis showed that spermatogenesis occurred within the graft. Intracytoplasmic sperm injection demonstrated that the testicular sperm generated in the grafted donor tissue were able to support full-term development of progeny. These results clearly showed that functional spermatogenesis could be induced by transplanting testicular tissue from cloned mice that died postnatally into recipient mice. The strategy presented here will be applicable to cloned animals of other species, because the xenografting of testicular tissue into mice has been demonstrated previously to be possible.     

Developmental competence of nuclear transfer cow oocytes after direct injection of fetal fibroblast nuclei

We have examined the in vitro and in vivo development of cloned embryos produced by incorporation of fetal fibroblast into in vitro matured and enucleated cow oocytes by direct injection and by fusion. For injection, nuclei were either mechanically isolated using the microinjection needle or chemically isolated by treatment with NP-40 lysis buffer. Fetal fibroblasts were serum starved and treated with calcium ionophore before injection to induce chromatin condensation. A range of 8% to 16% of successfully injected oocytes developed to blastocysts in culture and a total of nine pregnancies resulted from transfer of cloned embryos produced by this method. Nuclear transfer by fusion resulted in 22% development to blastocysts. Unlike in mice, the embryos derived from injection did not result in viable pregnancies, which may suggest species differences. All pregnancies were terminated after 45 to 150 days from transfer. Two pregnancies resulted from transfer of cloned embryos obtained by fusion which produced two healthy female calves. The study proposes an alternative method for the production of cow cloned embryos. Further research, however, is required to optimize bovine cloning by injection.     

Application of high-resolution melting for genotyping bovine mitochondrial DNA

Recent studies have demonstrated that mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotype has a significant impact on the efficiency of bovine somatic cell nuclear transfer. Conventional methods for detecting mtDNA variations and haplotypes, such as restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), temporal temperature gradient gel electrophoresis, dHPLC and sequencing, are labor intensive or expensive and have low sensitivity. High-resolution melting (HRM) analysis is a new technique for mutation detection and has the advantages of speed, cost, and accuracy. Here, we describe the genotyping of bovine mtDNA using HRM analysis. DNA samples containing mtDNA were extracted from 75 Holstein cows and subjected to rapid-cycle (<20 min) PCR of small amplicons (<120 bp) using specific primer sets. Capillaries containing the PCR products were then subjected to HRM analysis; data were acquired in 2 min and analyzed using the instrument's software. Five common bovine mtDNA single nucleotide polymorphisms were identified: 9602 G>A, 169 A>G, 166A>G with 173A>G, and 363C>G. These results agree with both sequencing and RFLP analysis. In addition, a very small amount of heteroplasmic variants (<5%) was sufficiently to be distinguished by HRM analysis that would be very useful to differentiate heteroplasmy vs. homoplasmy. HRM analysis thus provides a new approach to genotyping bovine mtDNA sequence variations and has many advantages over other methods, including speed of analysis, cost, and accuracy. We believe this will be a valuable technique for determining the efficiency of nuclear transfer in cloned embryos and for studying maternal effects on nuclear-cytoplasm interactions.     

Cytoplasmic impact on cross-genus cloned fish derived from transgenic common carp (Cyprinus carpio) nuclei and goldfish (Carassius auratus) enucleated eggs

In previous studies of nuclear transplantation, most cloned animals were obtained by intraspecies nuclear transfer and are phenotypically identical to their nuclear donors; furthermore, there was no further report on successful fish cloning since the report of cloned zebrafish. Here we report the production of seven cross-genus cloned fish by transferring nuclei from transgenic common carp into enucleated eggs of goldfish. Nuclear genomes of the cloned fish were exclusively derived from the nuclear donor species, common carp, whereas the mitochondrial DNA from the donor carp gradually disappeared during the development of nuclear transfer (NT) embryos. The somite development process and somite number of nuclear transplants were consistent with the recipient species, goldfish, rather than the nuclear donor species, common carp. This resulted in a long-lasting effect on the vertebral numbers of the cloned fish, which belonged to the range of goldfish. These demonstrate that fish egg cytoplasm not only can support the development driven by transplanted nuclei from a distantly related species at the genus scale but also can modulate development of the nuclear transplants.     

Chromosomal abnormalities: a potential quality issue for cloned cattle embryos

Nuclear transfer in cattle is associated with high levels of embryonic mortality and often with congenital malformation. Chromosomal abnormalities are a well-known cause of pregnancy failure and congenital malformation in humans, but their relative contribution to pregnancy failure and congenital malformation in cloned embryos and calves is largely unknown. This paper reviews existing literature on the chromosomal constitution of bovine embryos produced by fertilization in vivo and in vitro, parthenogenetic activation, and nuclear transfer. The published data suggest that chromosomally abnormal cells are common in embryos; however, the frequency reported varies with the method of embryo production. The most frequently observed deviation from the diploid karyotype was mixoploidy resulting from aberrant cell division causing polyploidy in a variable proportion of the embryo's cells.     

Nuclear transfer: a new tool for reproductive biotechnology in cattle

Recent evolutions of somatic cloning by nuclear transfer are reported, especially in the bovine species where potential applications are underway for biomedicine in association with transgenesis, or for agriculture by improving livestock. The overall efficiency of this biotechnology remains low in terms of viable offspring, but significant progress has been achieved on the different steps of the technique. However, the in vivo development of bovine blastocysts derived from somatic nuclear transfer is characterised by some important features that lead to the "cloning syndrome". Important losses occur during the peri-implantation period and further late foetal loss is observed in association with the Large Offspring Syndrome. About 60-70% of the cloned calves born survive normally to the adult stage and present an apparently normal physiology. Recent data already available on bovine somatic clones of both sexes indicate that they have a zootechnical performance similar to non cloned animals and they are able to reproduce normally without the pathologies associated to cloning thus confirming that the deviations observed in clones are of epigenetic origin and not transmitted to the progeny.     

克隆猪技术及其在转基因猪研究中的应用

哺乳动物核移植技术是一种可以获得基因组遗传信息完全相同的后代的生物技术。猪体细胞核移植技术包括以下几个环节：卵母细胞的体外成熟、供体细胞的分离和处理、体细胞的核转移、重构胚胎的人工激活、胚胎体外培养和胚胎移植。由于该技术在最近几年的迅速发展,很多实验室已通过该技术成功获得了克隆猪后代。核移植克隆猪技术的出现为生产转基因猪提供了一种有效的方法,并且是目前生产基因打靶猪的惟一方法。至今利用克隆猪技术已经成功获得了一系列的转基因猪和基因敲除猪。以核移植技术产生基因修饰猪目前正处于从基础研究走向应用的过渡阶段。尽管猪体细胞核移植克隆的效率（出生克隆猪数占所用卵数的比例）还不高,但是由于通过该技术能够对猪基因组进行特定的修饰,确保生产的克隆动物100％为转基因动物,从而大大提高了转基因猪的制作效率,可以预料猪核移植技术将会对医药业和农业产生重大的影响。     

Aliphatic chain length by isotropic mixing (ALCHIM): determining composition of complex lipid samples by 1H NMR spectroscopy

Quantifying the amounts and types of lipids present in mixtures is important in fields as diverse as medicine, food science, and biochemistry. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy can quantify the total amounts of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids in mixtures, but identifying the length of saturated fatty acid or the position of unsaturation by NMR is a daunting challenge. We have developed an NMR technique, aliphatic chain length by isotropic mixing, to address this problem. Using a selective total correlation spectroscopy technique to excite and transfer magnetization from a resolved resonance, we demonstrate that the time dependence of this transfer to another resolved site depends linearly on the number of aliphatic carbons separating the two sites. This technique is applied to complex natural mixtures allowing the identification and quantification of the constituent fatty acids. The method has been applied to whole adipocytes demonstrating that it will be of great use in studies of whole tissues.