Recently, scientists from the Institute of Animal Sciences (IAS) of CAAS made a breakthrough in transgenic animal technology research. And their research achievement entitled Advances in the Development of New Transgenic Animal Technology was published in the latest issue of the journal of Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences.

Transgenic animal technology is one of the fastest growing biotechnology areas. It is used to integrate exogenous genes into the animal genome by genetic engineering technology so that these genes can be inherited and expressed by offspring. This paper reviews the latest progress of animal transgenic technologies, including the germ line stem cell-mediated method to improve efficiency, gene targeting to improve accuracy, RNA interference-mediated gene silencing technology, zinc-finger nuclease gene targeting technology and induced pluripotent stem cell technology. Based on the key limiting factors for transgenic efficiency and precise control of gene expression in the production of transgenic animals, it focuses on the novel transgenic technologies in improving transgenic efficiency and accuracy, and further explores into the transgenic theory as well as their strengths and weaknesses in practical applications.

Also this article introduces the updated progress, existing problems and the development trend in the field of transgenic animal technologies. It provides theoretical references and technical supports for future transgenic research.