Читать книгу Neurobiology For Dummies - Frank Amthor - Страница 87

A huge research endeavor is going on, involving transgenic animals (animals whose genome has been changed by transferring genes from another species or breed, or by eliminating these genes altogether). The genetic compositions of these animals are different from so-called “wild type” animals. Many animal lines with these different genetic compositions originally arose from random mutations in offspring. They were then selectively bred as “models” for human diseases.

Today “knock-out” and “knock-in” transgenic animals exist. In these animals, scientists deliberately modify the genome by changing the DNA codons for single amino acids, multiple amino acids, or even entire genes.