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The first recorded knockout mouse was created by Mario R. Capecchi, Martin Evans, and Oliver Smithies in 1989, for which they were awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Aspects of the technology for generating knockout mice, and the mice themselves have been patented in many countries by private companies.
The International Knockout Mouse Consortium (IKMC) is a scientific endeavour to produce a collection of mouse embryonic stem cell lines that together lack every gene in the genome, and then to distribute the cells to scientific researchers to create knockout mice to study.
Each stem cell contains one mutant gene copy and one 'wild-type' (normal) gene copy. The entire library is intended to mutate 13,000 genes in total. Of these 13000 mutant genes, 8000 mutations in mouse ES Cells are 'targeted': that is, the mutation which knocks out gene function is inserted precisely into the genome.
A comparison of a mouse unable to produce leptin thus resulting in obesity (left) and a normal mouse (right) The ob/ob or obese mouse is a mutant mouse that eats excessively due to mutations in the gene responsible for the production of leptin and becomes profoundly obese. It is an animal model of type II diabetes.
An example of this method in action can be seen through the production of a knockout mouse. This is accomplished through the administration of one or more transgenes into a fertilized mouse oocyte’s pronucleus. Afterwards, it is reimplanted into a host mother, who then births a transgenic mouse.
A knockout mouse (left) that is a model of obesity, compared with a normal mouse. Knockouts are primarily used to understand the role of a specific gene or DNA region by comparing the knockout organism to a wildtype with a similar genetic background. [citation needed]
Genetically modified mammals are mammals that have been genetically engineered.They are an important category of genetically modified organisms.The majority of research involving genetically modified mammals involves mice with attempts to produce knockout animals in other mammalian species limited by the inability to derive and stably culture embryonic stem cells.
Capecchi was awarded the Nobel prize for creating a knockout mouse. This is a mouse, created by genetic engineering and in vitro fertilization, in which a particular gene has been turned off. [28] For this work, Capecchi was awarded the 2007 Nobel prize for medicine or physiology, along with Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies, who also contributed.