Generation of cloned transgenic pigs rich in omega-3 fatty acids.

Lai, Liangxue; Kang, Jing X; Li, Rongfeng; Wang, Jingdong; Witt, William T; Yong, Hwan Yul; Hao, Yanhong; Wax, David M et al. · Nat Biotechnol · 2006

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Meat products are generally low in omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids, which are beneficial to human health. We describe the generation of cloned pigs that express a humanized Caenorhabditis elegans gene, fat-1, encoding an n-3 fatty acid desaturase. The hfat-1 transgenic pigs produce high levels of n-3 fatty acids from n-6 analogs, and their tissues have a significantly reduced ratio of n-6/n-3 fatty acids (P < 0.001).

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