Abstract
Livestock meat is generally low in n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), which are beneficial to human health. An alternative approach to increasing the levels of n-3 PUFAs in meat is to generate transgenic livestock animals. In this study, we describe the generation of cloned pigs that express the cbr-fat-1 gene from Caenorhabditis briggsae, encoding an n-3 fatty acid desaturase. Analysis of fatty acids demonstrated that the cbr-fat-1 transgenic pigs produced high levels of n-3 fatty acids from n-6 analogs; consequently, a significantly reduced ratio of n-6/n-3 fatty acids was observed. We demonstrated that the n-3 desaturase gene from C. briggsae was functionally expressed, and had a significant effect on the fatty acid composition of the transgenic pigs, which may allow the production of pork enriched in n-3 PUFAs.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aki T, Shimada Y, Inagaki K, Higashimoto H, Kawamoto S, Shigeta S, Ono K, Suzuki O (1999) Molecular cloning and functional characterization of rat delta-6 fatty acid desaturase. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 255:575–579
Arterburn LM, Hall EB, Oken H (2006) Distribution, interconversion, and dose response of n-3 fatty acids in humans. Am J Clin Nutr 83:1467S–1476S
Cho HP, Nakamura MT, Clarke SD (1999) Cloning, expression, and nutritional regulation of the mammalian delta-6 desaturase. J Biol Chem 274:471–477
Forsberg CW, Meidinger RG, Liu M, Cottrill M, Golovan S, Phillips JP (2013) Integration, stability and expression of the E. coli phytase transgene in the Cassie line of yorkshire Enviropig. Transgenic Res 22(2):379–389
Hamada T, Sasaki H, Seki R, Sakaki Y (1993) Mechanism of chromosomal integration of transgenes in microinjected mouse eggs: sequence analysis of genome-transgene and transgene–transgene junctions at two loci. Gene 128:197–202
Horrocks LA, Yeo YK (1999) Health benefits of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Pharmacol Res 40:211–225
Indo Y, Tatemizo A, Abe Y, Suzuki I, Matsumoto K, Hosoi Y, Kinoshita M, Mikami K, Murata N, Iritani A, Saeki K (2009) Functional expression of a humanized gene for an omega-3 fatty acid desaturase from scarlet flax in transfected bovine adipocytes and bovine embryos cloned from the cells. Biochim Biophys Acta 1791:183–190
Lai L, Kang JX, Li R, Wang J, Witt WT, Yong HY, Hao Y, Wax DM, Murphy CN, Rieke A, Samuel M, Linville ML, Korte SW, Evans RW, Starzl TE, Prather RS, Dai Y (2006) Generation of cloned transgenic pigs rich in omega-3 fatty acids. Nat Biotechnol 24:435–436
Leonard AE, Pereira SL, Sprecher H, Huang YS (2004) Elongation of long-chain fatty acids. Prog Lipid Res 43:36–54
Naylor RL, Goldburg RJ, Primavera JH, Kautsky N, Beveridge MC, Clay J, Folke C, Lubchenco J, Mooney H, Troell M (2000) Effect of aquaculture on world fish supplies. Nature 405:1017–1024
Pan DK, Zhang YH, Sun XZ, Zhang J, Li X, Li Y, Gu ZL, Da YP (2006) Cloned pigs derived from somatic cell nuclear transfer embryos cultured in vitro at low oxygen tension. Chin Sci Bull 51:839–844
Pereira SL, Leonard AE, Mukerji P (2003) Recent advances in the study of fatty acid desaturases from animals and lower eukaryotes. Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids 68:97–106
Rohan RM, King D, Frels WI (1990) Direct sequencing of PCR-amplified junction fragments from tandemly repeated transgenes. Nucleic Acids Res 18:6089–6095
Schaefer EJ, Bongard V, Beiser AS, Lamon-Fava S, Robins SJ, Au R, Tucker KL, Kyle DJ, Wilson PW, Wolf PA (2006) Plasma phosphatidylcholine docosahexaenoic acid content and risk of dementia and Alzheimer disease: the Framingham Heart Study. Arch Neurol 63:1545–1550
Shi G, Chen H, Wu X, Zhou Y, Liu Z, Zheng T, Huang P (2009) A mWAP-hLF hybrid gene locus gave extremely high level expression of human lactoferrin in the milk of transgenic mice. Transgenic Res 18:573–582
Sidhu KS (2003) Health benefits and potential risks related to consumption of fish or fish oil. Regul Toxicol Pharmacol 38:336–344
Simopoulos AP (2000) Human requirement for N-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Poult Sci 79:961–970
Simopoulos AP (2001) n-3 fatty acids and human health: defining strategies for public policy. Lipids 36(Suppl):S83–S89
Simopoulos AP (2002) Omega-3 fatty acids in inflammation and autoimmune diseases. J Am Coll Nutr 21:495–505
Stark AH, Crawford MA, Reifen R (2008) Update on alpha-linolenic acid. Nutr Rev 66:326–332
Wu X, Ouyang H, Duan B, Pang D, Zhang L, Yuan T, Xue L, Ni D, Cheng L, Dong S, Wei Z, Li L, Yu M, Sun QY, Chen DY, Lai L, Dai Y, Li GP (2012) Production of cloned transgenic cow expressing omega-3 fatty acids. Transgenic Res 21:537–543
Zhang P, Zhang Y, Dou H, Yin J, Chen Y, Pang X, Vajta G, Bolund L, Du Y, Ma RZ (2012) Handmade cloned transgenic piglets expressing the nematode fat-1 gene. Cell Reprogram 14:258–266
Zhu G, Chen H, Wu X, Zhou Y, Lu J, Deng J (2008) A modified n-3 fatty acid desaturase gene from Caenorhabditis briggsae produced high proportion of DHA and DPA in transgenic mice. Transgenic Res 17:717–725
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the China Major National Science and Technology Project Grant 2013zx08006-002.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Additional information
Yanrong Zhou, Yanli Lin, and Xiaojie Wu have contributed equally to this study.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhou, Y., Lin, Y., Wu, X. et al. The high-level accumulation of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in transgenic pigs harboring the n-3 fatty acid desaturase gene from Caenorhabditis briggsae . Transgenic Res 23, 89–97 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11248-013-9752-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11248-013-9752-1