基因敲除在畜牧兽医领域的应用和展望

Application and Prospect of Gene Knockout in Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine

基因敲除是指对DNA序列已知但其功能未知的基因,从分子水平上设计实验,使该基因失活或缺失,从而推测出其生物学功能的基因修饰技术。目前该技术已经应用于畜牧兽医领域:在动物模型的建立方面发展迅速,广泛应用于小鼠、斑马鱼、鸡、牛、羊、猪等物种;功能基因组学方面,通过建立基因敲除动物模型发现了部分基因的功能;药理学方面,基因敲除小鼠可以用来揭示疾病的机理和寻找新的治疗靶点;免疫学方面,通过基因敲除可以从基因水平研究免疫系统的疾病;动物疾病预防和治疗方面,针对各种动物疾病的相应基因敲除也有很多应用;转基因动物研究方面,现已研究出很多调控元件用于转基因动物的外在调控;基因敲除技术在病原微生物的复制、代谢、致病机理和动物生长发育、育种方面也有应用。

Gene knockout is a kind of gene modification technology by which a specific gene with known sequences but without functional information can be inactivated or deleted via experiment designed at molecular level so as to speculate the biological function of the gene. Currently, this technology has been employed in many fields： in establishment of animal disease models, the application of gene knockout develops rapidly and it was widely used in human, mice, zebrafish, chicken, bovine, sheep, porcine,and other species; in functional genomics, the functional information of genes is found by establishment of gene knockout animal models; in pharmacology, gene knockout mice can be used to reveal the mechanism underlining the pathogenesis of diseases and to discover novel therapeutic targets; in immunology, the immune system diseases can be investigated at genetic level by gene knockout; in prevention and treatment of animal diseases, gene knockout is also wildly applied; in transgenic animal research, a lot of regulatory elements have been investigated for the external regulation of transgenic animals; gene knockout technology is also employed in research regarding replication, metabolism and pathogenesis of pathogenic microorganisms as well as growth,development and breeding of animals.