Production of Transgenic Wuzhishan Inbred Miniature Pigs Carrying Green Fluorescent Protein by Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

In this study, based on somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), we used the ear fibroblasts of miniature pigs transfected with enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) as the donor cells and transplanted reconstructed embryos (at the 1–8 cell stage) into the oviducts of three sexually mature Wuzhishan miniature pigs that were naturally estrus. One recipient successfully birthed two stillborn and two live piglets after 116 days of pregnancy. We investigated the presence of the foreign gene in the skin tissues of the piglets and tested 13 microsatellite polymorphisms in the recipient pigs, cloned offspring and donor cells. The results indicated that two cloned offspring expressed EGFP and all four cloned offspring had the same polymorphisms at all 13 microsatellites as the donor cell. However, the microsatellites varied between the cloned offspring and the recipient pigs, indicating the absence of a blood relationship between the two. The study therefore establishes a system to obtain transgenic Wuzhishan inbred miniature pigs by SCNT, thereby providing a basis to study the pathologic mechanisms of human disease and producing animal models for human