Transgenesis and gene edition in small ruminants / Transgênese e edição gênica em pequenos ruminantes

This review summarizes the main achievements with the use of transgenesis and genome editingtechnologies in sheep and goats. Transgenesis, also referred to as recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology, madepossible by the first time 30 years ago the addition of novel traits from a given species into a different one. Onthe other hand, more recently genome editing appears a much more precise method of making changes to thegenome of a plant, animal, or other living organism, allowing for the addition, substitution, or deletion ofspecific nucleotides in an organisms genome. With transgenesis, the introduction of new DNA into anorganisms genome was generally without control of the site of the genome in which the insertion of that rDNAconstruct would occur. With genome editing in contrast, researchers and developers of products can makespecific changes in precise locations of the genome. This concept was absolutely improved with the novelCRISPR/Cas system, making genome edition cheaper, more efficient, easier and affordable for every Laboratoryaround the world. This revolution that originally emerged from molecular biology and passed to biomedicine,has recently been applied to livestock and agriculture. In addition, the application of this technology in sheep,goats, pigs and cattle, also has been possible by the advance of assisted reproductive technologies for embryoproduction, micromanipulation, cryopreservation and transfer. In general, multidisciplinary approaches includingbasic research and technical improvements, participation of private actors and adequate regulation should bemerged to take advantage of this potent biotechnology in different countries.(AU)

Transgenesis and gene edition in small ruminants / Transgênese e edição gênica em pequenos ruminantes

This review summarizes the main achievements with the use of transgenesis and genome editingtechnologies in sheep and goats. Transgenesis, also referred to as recombinant DNA (rDNA) technology, madepossible by the first time 30 years ago the addition of novel traits from a given species into a different one. Onthe other hand, more recently genome editing appears a much more precise method of making changes to thegenome of a plant, animal, or other living organism, allowing for the addition, substitution, or deletion ofspecific nucleotides in an organism’s genome. With transgenesis, the introduction of new DNA into anorganism’s genome was generally without control of the site of the genome in which the insertion of that rDNAconstruct would occur. With genome editing in contrast, researchers and developers of products can makespecific changes in precise locations of the genome. This concept was absolutely improved with the novelCRISPR/Cas system, making genome edition cheaper, more efficient, easier and affordable for every Laboratoryaround the world. This revolution that originally emerged from molecular biology and passed to biomedicine,has recently been applied to livestock and agriculture. In addition, the application of this technology in sheep,goats, pigs and cattle, also has been possible by the advance of assisted reproductive technologies for embryoproduction, micromanipulation, cryopreservation and transfer. In general, multidisciplinary approaches includingbasic research and technical improvements, participation of private actors and adequate regulation should bemerged to take advantage of this potent biotechnology in different countries.

Recent advances in micromanipulation and transgenesis in domestic mammals

Background: Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) involves mechanical transfer of a single sperm cell into ooplasm. A new application has been recently found for ICSI, the production of transgenic animals. Since the birth of ''Dolly'', the first adult somatic cloned mammal, viable offspring has been produced by nuclear transfer in many species including cattle. The present review briefly summarizes our experience with ICSI and somatic cell nuclear transfer mainly to produce transgenic embryos, as well as for the generation of new micromanipulation technique. Review: We have evaluated different factors that affect SCNT and transgenesis including the chemical activator, the transfection event and the effect of recloning. Also, we included a brief description of the ICSI technique, which we used in five different species, examining its potential to produce transgenic embryos. Finally different strategies to produce transgenic animals were analyzed: ICSI- mediated gen transfer (ICSI-MGT), Injection of cumulus cell and ooplasmic vesicle incubated for 5 min with the transgene or injection of the plasmid alone. All of them were very efficient in exogenous DNA expression at embryo stages but resulted in mosaic embryos. We demonstrated that "ICSI-MGT" assisted by chemical activation is the only treatment of sperm mediated gen transfer capable to generated transgenic embryos in ovine. Besides, after ICSI-MGT, it is possible to obtain enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP)-expressing embryos in five diferent species: ovine, porcine, feline, bovine and equine. Our studies also established for the first time that short term transgene co-incubation with somatic cells can produce transgene-expressing mammalian SCNT embryos, and also that parthenogenic, eDNA- expressing embryos can be obtained by injection of vesicles or eDNA alone. Moreover, eDNA- -expressing embryos can be also obtained by cytoplasmic injection of vesicles in IVF zygotes, simplifying the traditional IVF pronuclear injection technique. We tried a further simplification of the technique in bovine oocytes and zygotes, by intracytoplasmically injecting them with eDNA-liposomes complexes. Approximately 70% of the cleaved embryos and 50% of the blastocysts expressed EGFP, when egfp­liposome was injected 16 h post-fertilization. Different approaches were assayed to reverse the mosaicism including a novel technique of gamete cloning. Our first approach consisted of the production of transgenic IVF embryos by vesicle microinjection to generate transgenic blastomeres to be used as donor cells for cloning. A high efficiency in mosaicism reversal and multiplication of transgenic embryos was attaineded. Other technique assayed was the separation of transgenic blastomeres followed by the aggregation of two-cell fused embryos or by the asynchronous younger blastomere successfully multiplied transgenic embryos, and theoretically reduces mosaicism rates in future offspring [15]. This technology can also be used to multiply embryos from animals with high genetic value. We demonstrated that a sperm and oocyte can be efficiently cloned. Green haploid androgenic blastomeres produced with the injection of a single sperm by egfp ICSI-MGT could be used to fertilized oocytes resulting in several homogeneous expressing embryos. This approach shows great potential because it allows for determination of the sex of the sperm nucleus prior to fertilization. It is also possible to clone previously transfected oocytes followed by the reconstruction of biparental bovine embryos to generate homogeneous transgene-expressing embryos. This review summarizes recent experiments in micromanipulation and gene transfer in domestic animals. The objective is not to exhaustedly describe the research done in this field but to present the promising methods recently developed or evaluated in our lab. Conclusion: Significant advancements have been made in the course of the recent years in micromanipulation and transgenesis techniques. In our lab we have been evaluating ICSI and Nuclear transfer mainly to produce transgenic embryos. We used also transgensis to apply or developed new micromanipulation technique in domestic animals linke sperm and oocyte cloning.