genetic engineering

[ManBearPig89]

Hello!

I was just wondering: When scientists insert a certain gene in a mouse, lets say: so it can glow in the dark, Is this done when the mouse is still in the womb of it's mother, or can it be done in a fully grown mouse (making it glow)?

Is the gene((s) (?)) insertet in a female mouse, than it's offspring "inherit" the ability to glow? If so, are all the offsprings going to glow? Also: What are the ~ survival rate of a GM organism?

Thanks!

[mith]

How do you insert a gene?

[biohazard]

Hint: if you want the whole mouse to glow, you must make every cell contain the same piece of DNA. Thus you must start pretty early, right? So, you usually engineer the egg or cells at the early embryonal stage.

Alternatively, if you want to make the target tissue or some random cells glow, retroviral delivery systems or even gene guns and such may do the trick. Then you can use adult animals.

Animals that carry the new DNA in their every cell's genome also transfer it to their offspring. If adult animals are used, then the changes are not inheritable, unless of course you target its germ line cells as well.

edit: couple typofixes

[jwalin]

biohazard has put in everything...
one more thing you can consider though...
hybridoma (cancerous) cells. you can either get the gene into a cell and make the cell cancerous... or you can insert a hybridoma cell (the cell must have been orignally be taken from the same mouse)
but this hass its own side effects...

still i would want someone else to comment on my post... most probably it should workk but a second opinion is always better...

[ManBearPig89]

haha..! that was so obv. !

thank you!

[jwalin]

lol... because at times... i have got things wrong although they were obvious for many other things are also possible...
or in some cases you dont want to kill the specimen...
but anyways...lol