Department of Dermatology, Medical College of Wisconsin, 8701 Watertown Plank Road, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA.
Trends Genet. 2010 Dec;26(12):510-8. doi: 10.1016/j.tig.2010.08.006. Epub 2010 Oct 1.
The rat has long been a model favored by physiologists, pharmacologists and neuroscientists. However, over the past two decades, many investigators in these fields have turned to the mouse because of its gene modification technologies and extensive genomic resources. Although the genomic resources of the rat have nearly caught up, gene targeting has lagged far behind, limiting the value of the rat for many investigators. In the past two years, advances in transposon- and zinc finger nuclease (ZFN)-mediated gene knockout as well as the establishment and culturing of embryonic and inducible pluripotent stem cells have created new opportunities for rat genetic research. Here, we provide a high-level description and the potential uses of these new technologies for investigators using the rat for biomedical research.
大鼠长期以来一直是生理学家、药理学家和神经科学家所青睐的模型。然而，在过去的二十年中，由于其基因修饰技术和广泛的基因组资源，这些领域的许多研究人员都转向了小鼠。尽管大鼠的基因组资源已近赶上，但基因靶向技术却远远落后，这限制了大鼠在许多研究人员中的应用价值。在过去的两年中，转座子和锌指核酸酶（ZFN）介导的基因敲除技术的进步以及胚胎和诱导多能干细胞的建立和培养为大鼠遗传研究创造了新的机会。在这里，我们为使用大鼠进行生物医学研究的研究人员提供了这些新技术的高级描述和潜在用途。
