Latest Advances in Animal Biotechnology and its Current

Status in Pakistan

ByFaiza Bashir[Bi083003]

27th Dec,2011

Animal Biotechnology

• The term “Animal Biotechnology” include thousands of years of humans selectively breeding animals as a biotechnology:

Observing desirable animal traits and

Attempting to breed those traits into successive lines of animals.

Animal Biotechnology Techniques

Embryo TransferIn Vitro FertilizationXenotransplantationTransgenicsCloningGenetic Engineering or

Recombinant DNA Technology

Advances in Biotechnology

• Producers are interested in the application of biotechnology to

Improve productivity, consistency, and

qualityIntroduce new food, fiber, and medical

productsProtect the environment.

Potential human health applications of transgenic animals include producing biopharmaceuticals and generating organs, tissues, and cells for xenotransplantation.

Criticisms of such applications involve issues ranging from food safety and social resistance to potential negative impacts on animal welfare and on ecosystems.

Questions also have arisen about the adequacy of the current regulatory structure to assess and manage any risks created by these technologies.

Review Article # 1

Recent Advances in Imaging the Lungs of Intact Small Animals

Recent Advances in Imaging

the Lungs of Intact Small Animals

•A new generation of imaging devices now make it possible to generate both structural and functional images for the study of lung biology in small animals, including common laboratory mouse and rat models.

Processes under Consideration

To study diverse processes such as

Ventilation, Perfusion, Pulmonary hypertension, Lung inflammation, and Gene transfer

Technologies used to study the Diverse Processes

"Micro" X-ray computed tomography and positron emission tomography scanners,

Highly sensitive cooled charge coupled device cameras for bioluminescence and fluorescence imaging,

High magnetic field magnetic resonance imaging scanners, and

Recent advances in ultrasound system technology

Images from more than one modality can also be fused, allowing structure-function and function-function relationships to be studied on a regional basis.

These new instruments, part of an emerging suite of techniques collectively known as "molecular imaging," provide an enormous potential for elucidating lung biology in intact animal models and systems.

Review Article # 2

Recent advances in Sex Preselection of Cattle :Flow Cytometric Sorting of X- &

Y-chromosome Bearing Sperm Based on DNA to

Produce Progeny

Flow Cytometric Sorting of X- & Y-chromosome Bearing Sperm Based on DNA to Produce Progeny

•Recent progress has led to the availability of a method of gender preselection in farm animals that can be used for producing progeny in cattle, sheep, and swine under semi-practical conditions.

Flow Cytometry/Cell Sorting Technology

Sperms are separated based on the inherent difference in DNA content in the X-and Y-chromosome bearing sperm using flow cytometry/cell sorting technology.

Sperms are stained with Hoechst 33342 which binds to the DNA helix in an amount proportional to the amount of DNA thus forming the basis for the method.

Success Rate

Calves of predicted sex have been born using sorted sperm in conjunction with IVF resulting in embryos for transfer.

Swine, rabbits and sheep have been produced using surgical insemination with smaller numbers of sperm than are required for artificial insemination.

All offspring that have been born using this technology have been morphologically normal, and swine and rabbit offspring have shown normal reproductive function through two generations.

Research to streamline hardware and improve staining technology is ongoing, while at the same time the method is being developed for the commercial embryo market.

Review Article # 3

Practical Aspects of IVM/IVF in Cattle

Practical aspects of IVM/IVF in cattle

Recent developments in the techniques of gamete manipulation and embryo production in vitro have already been applied to animal breeding.

Embryos of commercial value or high genetic quality can be obtained in vitro from the oocytes of slaughtered donors or from donors of high genetic quality by ultrasound guided follicular aspiration.

Large numbers of cheap embryos produced in vitro are also available for research.

Current StatusMany factors influence the efficiency of

the in vitro technology such as the status of the donor and the technique used to culture the embryos from the zygote to blastocyst stage.

The limits to the widespread use of in vitro technology are the low freezability of the embryos completely cultured in vitro and some abnormalities reported in the offspring.

Review Article # 4

Fluorescence Imaging In Vivo: Recent Advances

Fluorescence Imaging In Vivo• In vivo fluorescence imaging uses a sensitive camera to

detect fluorescence emission from fluorophores in whole-body living small animals.

• To overcome the photon attenuation in living tissue, fluorophores with long emission at the near-infrared (NIR) region are generally preferred, including widely used small indocarbocyanine dyes.

• The list of NIR probes continues to grow with the recent addition of fluorescent organic, inorganic and biological nanoparticles. Recent advances in imaging strategies and reporter techniques for in vivo fluorescence imaging include novel approaches to improve the specificity and affinity of the probes and to modulate and amplify the signal at target sites for enhanced sensitivity. Further emerging developments are aiming to achieve high-resolution, multimodality and lifetime-based in vivo fluorescence imaging.

Review Article # 5

• Review

• Real-time biomass-concentration monitoring in animal-cell cultures

• Konstantin Konstantinov, Sandra Chuppa, Eva Sajan, Yeong Tsai, Sungjin Yoon, Fred Golini

Real-time biomass-concentration monitoring in

animal-cell cultures• The accurate, on-line measurement of cell

concentration in animal-cell cultures is an on-going problem in bioprocess engineering, and the development of new monitoring techniques is an area of intensive and fruitful research.

• This article summarizes the recent advances, trends and problems in this field and focuses, in particular, on optical sensors, including the latest laser and infrared probes.

•

Alternative Methods• Alternative methods, such as

multiple-extinction fluorimetry, real-time imaging and particle-size analysis, are also discussed.

• Although many of these techniques are still at an experimental stage, we believe that some of them have been developed sufficiently that we advocate their routine use in bioprocess monitoring and control.

Review Article # 6

•Cryopreservation of mammalian embryos and oocytes: Recent advances

• Andre T. Palasz, Reuben J. Mapletoft

• The cryopreservation of embryos of most domestic species has become a routine procedure in embryo transfer, and recently, advances have been made in the cold storage of mammalian oocytes.

• The ability to sustain viable oocytes and embryos from mammalian species at low temperature for prolonged periods of time has important implications to basic and applied biotechnology. Recent advances in the study of physico-chemical behaviour of different cryoprotectants, use of various macromolecule additives in cryoprotective solutions and isolation and use of proteins of plant and animal origin with antifreeze activity offers many new options for cryopreservation of oocytes and embryos of animal and human origin.

• At the same time rapidly developing methods of oocyte/embryo manipulation such as in vitro embryo production, embryo splitting, embryo biopsing for gene and sex determination, embryo cloning and the isolation of individual blastomers, create new challanges in cryopreservation. Very recent advances in the cryopreservation of mammalian oocytes, in vivo- and in vitro-derived embryos, and micromanipulated embryos are reviewed in this manuscript.

Current Status of Animal Biotechnology in Pakistan

• Animal biotechnology in terms of genomics (DNA finger printing) and vaccine for livestock are gaining strength, while animal cloning is still at the planning stage. Some work on Embryo Transfer Technology is under way.

• Aside from traditional vaccines and some genomic studies there is little Genetically Engineered (GE) animal activity in the country.

• • Limited quantities of chemical based veterinary

pharmaceuticals are formulated from imported raw materials. However, little work on Embryo Transfer Technology is underway.

• There is no public campaign against the genetic engineering of agriculturally-relevant animals. Actually, there is a very little public awareness in this regard. Use of lactating hormones in milking animals is a routine activity.

• Dairy industry is flourishing in Pakistan and demand is on the rise.

• Public opinion is in favor of healthy products. There is no preference for organic nor is there any opposition to GM products. Basic demand is to have high productivity with less input.