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| Dairy goat is a good model for production of transgenic proteins in milk by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). However, animals produced from SCNT are often linked with lung deficiencies. Imprinted genes are important regulators of lung growth, and may be subjected to faulty reprogramming. In the present study, firstly, microsatellite analysis, PCR and DNA sequence identification were conducted to confirm that these three dead kids were genetically identical to the transgenic donor cells. Secondly, the CpG island methylation profiles of imprinted insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF2R) gene was assessed by Bisulfite Sequencing PCR (BSP) in lungs of the three dead transgenic clones and normally produced lambs. In addition, the relative mRNA level of IGF2R was also determined by real-time PCR (RT-PCR). Results showed that IGF2R gene in the lung of dead cloned goat fetus showed abnormal hypermethylation and higher mRNA expression levels (P<0.05) comparing to the control, indicating that aberrant DNA methylation reprogramming may be one of the important factors for the death of transgenic cloned animals. |
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| Keywords: Transgenic cloned dairy goats; Lung; IGF2R; DNA methylation |
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