Sheep fish oil
The Chinese cloned a "dietary" sheep
The gene donor was the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, widely used as a model organism. The results of the work have not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal, reports on the results of the experiment are provided on the website of BGI Ark Biotechnology Co., LTD, one of the partners of the Beijing Institute of Genomics (World's First Handmade Cloned Transgenic Sheep born in China).
The transgenic sheep, which received the nickname Peng Peng (Peng Peng, after the names of the scientists who conducted the cloning), was born on March 26, 2012. Researchers say she is healthy and developing normally.
The cloning project started two years ago. During this time, biologists managed to change the standard procedure and create a more simplified protocol of "manual cloning", as the researchers called it. According to them, the new method made it possible to achieve greater efficiency of the procedure in a specific climate and lack of modern equipment.
The donor of the cellular material was a sheep of the Chinese Merino breed (this is mainly a woolen breed, but the authors do not explain why they chose it). A gene responsible for the production of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in the roundworm C.elegans was introduced into the animal's genome. A transgenic egg was implanted into a surrogate mother who carried Pen Pen. The message does not give the number of attempts that led to a positive result.
Polyunsaturated fatty acids are considered by many scientists to be useful for the human diet. They are an indispensable (like vitamins) element of human nutrition, since he cannot produce them on his own. Vegetable oils, nuts, seafood and fish oil are usually used as a source of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Chinese scientists hope that now sheep's milk and meat can become a source of these substances.
However, not all researchers are sure that the use of polyunsaturated fatty acids is certainly useful. (We recommend reading about fats in general and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in particular in the article "Fat Mythology" – VM.) Some studies (conducted mainly on C.elegans) show their connection with aging. It is believed that unsaturated fatty acids can participate in the formation of reactive oxygen species in cell membranes.
In particular, their negative effect on the life expectancy of C.elegans (who acted as a gene donor) was established together with colleagues by Robert Schmuckler Rice. In his speech on Sunday, April 22, 2012, in Moscow at a conference on aging, he said that it is still difficult to say for sure whether polyunsaturated fatty acids are beneficial or harmful to humans.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru24.04.2012