Write An Essay On Transgenic Animals

Transgenesis is an advanced biotechnological technique by virtue of which introduction of new genes to a species belonging to an entirely different species is carried out. The transferred foreign gene is known as a ‘Transgene’. Plants in which the introduction of foreign gene or genes from another unrelated plant or even a different species have been carried out artificially are referred to as ‘Transgenic plants’ or ‘Genetically Modified Plants’. Similarly the animals in which foreign gene/genes have been deliberately inserted into their respective genomes are known as ‘Transgenic animals’ or ‘Genetically Modified Animals’.
Transgenic cropping has been adapted at a faster rate than any other agricultural technology and presently is being exploited by 16 million farmers as reported by James (2011). In 1992, first transgenic crop was grown commercially in China and farmers across the globe have rapidly adapted to transgenic crops (Lawson et al. 2009). USA is a country with largest area of transgenic crops, with a total area of 134 million ha in 2009, which increased to 160 million ha in 2011 (James 2011). USA is followed by Argentina, Brazil, Canada and India (Compass 2009) in this regard. It has been estimated that 40 % of the global acreage of transgenic crops

The foreign DNA transferred to recipient can be either from other individuals of same species or from unrelated species. This is often carried out through experimental manipulation of early embryos or gametes in multicellular organisms. Often the transgene is integrated at a very early-stage of embryonic development to let the cells of entire organism contain transgene. A wide variety of species can be made transgenic which includes insects, worms, vertebrates and plants. One of the most frequently genetically-manipulated animals is the mouse because of the availability of a variety of techniques to produce