Gen. of transgenic chickens using a lentiviral approach

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Currently, chimeric chickens are made by injecting blastodermal cells or chicken embryonic stem cells into stage X recipient embryos, but the frequency and the level of chimerism is variable and not predictable. We are developing a universal recipient that contributes minimally, so that the contribuion of donor dervied celld to the resulting chimera is constantly high and predictable. In phase I of this SBIR project, a lentiviral vector for the universal recipient chicken line and for a GFP control line was generated and evaluated by transducing stage X chicken embryos with a lentiviral vector. The results clearly demonstrated the feasibility of a lentiviral approach for the establishment of the universal recipient transgenic chicken lines. In phase II of this grant application, we plan to generate the universal recipient chicken lines using the lentiviral approach. The project is unique and innovative because it seeks to establish a reliable and reproducible method of compromising the recipient embryos to consistently yield high-grade chimeras and allow the production of significant amounts of protein per egg in a short period of time.