Banner Graphic, Volume 16, Number 138, Greencastle, Putnam County, 22 January 1986 — Page 14

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The Putnam County Banner Graphic, January 22,1986

Microinjection may be used to create special animal types

c. 1986 N.Y. Times News Service PHILADELPHIA—Magnified 400 times on the television monitor, the hollow needle glides forward to touch a living cell, pierces its surface and slides deep inside. “There you go,” says Myrna E. Trumbauer, a microbiologist at University of Pennsylvania, twisting microscope knobs gently so that the needle impales a tiny sphere within the cell. She pulls the needle back slightly and squirts clear liquid inside. The cell, appearing about the size of a dime on the television screen, is the fertilized egg cell of an ordinary female mouse. It will be transplanted into the uterus of another ordinary mouse, where it will grow into a fetus and be bom 21 days the ordinary way. The mouse pup looks ordinary too, but it will grow to twice normal size because its cells carry many copies of the gene for human growth hormone. It was the creation of “supermouse,” as the extra-large mouse has been nicknamed, that focused the scientific world’s attention on the gene transplantation technique known as microinjection. Perhaps nowhere in the world is the technique used more successfully than here in this laboratory, headed by Dr. Ralph L. Brinster, at the university’s school of veterinary medicine. Over the past few years Brinster’s team of scientists have transplanted hundreds of different genes and their variants into thousands of animals, mostly mice but also such larger animals as sheep, cows and pigs. Often these transplanted genes are passed on to succeeding generations as though they were ordinary hereditary traits except that these traits are foreign, sometimes human. One day, Brinster said in an interview, gene transplantation may be used to create special varieties of farm animals genetically resistant to important diseases. Other animals might become living “gene farms” to grow valuable human substances such as human blood factor 9, vital to proper blood clotting, or protective antibodies for use against infections. Much of the work involves recombinant DNA techniques, known popularly as gene splicing, to concoct hybrid genes with special control signals that will help them become activated in the animals’ tissues. Some of the newest control signals are almost like genetic mailing addresses except that they determine where the gene’s product usually a protein will be produced, not where the gene goes in the body. In recent experiments here, special chemical signals have been fused to the foreign genes so that the gene’s product is produced almost exclusively in specific tissues, such as in the kidney, pancreas or brain, a potentially important tool for iady of gene control. Most of this work has been done in collaboration with Dr. Richard Palmiter, a nolecular biologist at the Howard Hughes 'cdical Institute of the University of ashir.gton at Seattle. The coast-to-coast ■ i. .-Elaboration has been in progress for al nost five years. During the early years fa? two scientists had never met face to face, but talked at length by telephone. The gene microinjections are done under t ie microscope so that the transplanter n see the targets the egg cells, known in mammals as ova. In each transplant, the foreign DNA must be inserted in one of the fertilized egg cell’s two pronuclei; the tiny spherical packages of genes, one from each parent, that later fuse to become the cell nucleus. The deft fingers of an expert can do the transplants with remarkable speed. Trumabauer says she commonly does gene injections into 300 ova in an hour and a half. Mouse ova are almost transparent when viewed with the appropriate microscopy technique. But egg cells of larger animals such as sheep, cows and pigs are opaque and therefore difficult targets. Seeking a way around this problem, the researchers spun some of the eggs in a centrifuge so powerful that it subjected the cells to 10,000 times normal gravity. Centrifugation of the cow and pig ova pushed the opaque material to the top of the cells, and left the rest almost transparent with the pronuclei clearly visible. The scientists found that this harsh treatment left the pig egg cells intact and evidently unharmed. Some grew into healthy animals that carried foreign genes. “These experiments demonstrate that foreign genes can be introduced into several large animal species by microinjection of ova," said a recent report from the researchers fn Philadelphia, Seattle and collaborators at the Agricultural Research Service in Beltsville, Md. So far, the most notable success has been with pig ova injected with genes for human growth hormone. Some animals born of the experiments produced large amounts of the foreign hormone.

Sinclair honored Jerry Sinclair, rural Cloverdale, was among producers honored Jan. 18 during the Indiana Livestock Breeders Association banquet at Purdue University. Sinclair received the Nash trophy for breeding the Boar of the Year, a Duroc named “Truck.”

Direct injections of growth hormone into pigs appear to increase their growth efficiency and that may prove true of the pigs with transplanted genes too, but no superpigs have developed from the experiments. Pigs have been bred for maximum size for thousands of years and selective breeding is itself a way of selecting genes, although not with the precision possible with transplantation. Perhaps, over the centuries, pig farmers have already bred the animals to the maximum possible for the species, Brinster speculates. At present the work with large animals faces another problem unrelated to the technical difficulties of the research itself. The Humane Society of the United States and Jeremy Rifkin, who has been a continual critic of gene-splicing research, have sued the Department of Agriculture to halt the gene transplants in agricultural animals. The plaintiffs charge that the research “violates the moral and ethical canons of civilization" by the transplantations; that the work may threaten the stability of the gene pool and cause unwarranted suffering and sickness among the animals. About three years ago a presidential commission on ethical considerations in medical research studied the issue of gene transplantation and found no harm in the kind of research presently in progress. More recently, an advisory committee of the National Institutes of Health repudiated Rifkin’s views on gene transplantation across species lines. The suit is still before a federal court in Washington, DC. Through gene transplantations in mice, the scientists are finding clues to the riddle of cancer’s origin within cells and learning new ways to manipulate the immune defense system to prevent or cure disease. Recently the scientists in Philadelphia and colleagues at Baylor Medical College in Houston put the gene for an enzyme called HPRT into mice in such a way that most of the enzyme was produced in the animals’ brains. A grave hereditary disease, called Lesch-Nyhan disease is caused by a lack of that same enzyme in the patient’s bodies. The disease has serious effects on behavior and mental capability. It is a prime candidate for human gene therapy, but the doctors who are working toward this goal fear their efforts may be fruitless if the gene they want to transplant, or the gene’s products, don’t reach the patient’s brain. Gene transplantation by microinjection into the egg cell is not designed for human gene therapy. Indeed, many scientists including Brinster, say it should not be used in humans in the forseeable future. Putting foreign genes into the fertilized egg produces what is called a germline transplant. Potentially, it affects not only the individuals receiving the genes, but may also be passed on to future generations through natural heredity. Although there have been some spectacularly good results in animals, there are many unanswered questions and many potential hazards to reepients of such transplants, such as damage to a vital native gene. If a serious bad effect appears after an animal transplant, the experiments can be halted and the animals killed if necessary. If the same thing were to happen after a human germline transplant, the harmful gene combination would be out in the world beyond recall, possibly harming many of the original patient’s descendants. As a practical matter, the microinjection technique is seldom successful in more than 2 to 5 percent of injected egg cells, an acceptable proportion for animal research, but far too low to be practical in humans. Nevertheless, Brinster and Palmiter think the identification of special pieces of DNA that serve as signals to activate genes in particular tissues could prove valuable to doctors if they can be adapted for use in somatic cell gene therapy. Transplanted genes that will make their products grow selectively in specific tissues are also yielding results of interest to cancer research. Brinster and Palmiter have used the gene transplantation techniques to study oncogenes, the mysterious genes that may be intimately involved in the process by which cancers arise.

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Several community businesses and individuals helped the Greencastle Future Farmers of America plant and harvest corn on city land adjacent to the old zinc mill. In ad-

Greencastle FFA plans to expand crop project

The Greencastle Future Farmers of America will use proceeds from the sale of corn grown in an educational test plot to expand the crop project next year. Randy Hayes, FFA advisor at the high school, said the test plot project originated in 1984 when the Hendricks County Farm Bureau Co-op offered the FFA experimental com varieties, free pesticide and reduced-cost fertilizer. CLUB OFFICERS then met with Greencastle Mayor Gerald Warren and obtained permission to use city-owned ground adjacent to the old zinc mill. During the 198485 school year, high school agriculture classes widened and cleared the access road leading to the test plot. In the spring of 1985, community sponsors loaned the FFA machinery to use. Donations included tractors from Evens

Market reports

By The Associated Press Soybean futures prices declined sharply and most grain contracts closed lower on the Chicago Board of Trade on Tuesday. Speculators were big sellers of soybeans, driving the market down and pushing into commission house sell stops, analysts said. Commercial buying of com for delivery in the distant months supported prices for those contracts. Wheat settled % cent to 7% cents lower with the contract for delivery in March at $3.17% a bushel; com was 2¥i cents lower to 2% cents higher with March at $2.47% a bushel; oats were 3 cents to 4 cents lower with March at $1.30 a bushel; and soybeans were 7% cents to 11 cents lower with January at $5.30% a bushel. Cattle futures prices were mostly

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dition to revenue from the corn sale, club members used the acreage to study various crop production skills. (Photo by Randy Hayes)

Implement and Norman Rogers, a disc from Greencastle Tractor Sales and a plow from Kenneth Ferrand. FFA members then prepared the field for planting. Fertilizer was spread by Farm Bureau and com was planted courtesy of Jack Torr and Mike Clodfelter. THROUGHOUT THE SPRING and after the current school year opened last fall, the land was used by ag classes to study land preparation, soil testing, machine operation, yield estimation and other crop production skills. The corn was picked in November by Jerry Birt, Jimmy Black and Gary Fenwick, assisted by FFA members. The club, which expressed its appreciation to all sponsors, will use revenue from the com sale to improve the FFA and expand the crop project in the coming year.

lower in choppy trading at the Chicago Mercantile Exchnge. Live cattle settled .65 cent to .90 cent lower with the contract for delivery in February t 58.50 cents a pound; feeder cattle were .50 cent lower to .05 cent higher with March at 66.05 cents a pound; live hogs were .10 cent lower to .30 cent higher with February at 44.72 cents a pound; and frozen pork bellies were .15 cent lower to .15 cent higher with February at 62.72 cents a pound. INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - Grain prices Tuesday at Indianapolis area elevators: Com No. 2 yellow shelled 2.30-2.41; February 2.43; new 2.012.05. Soybeans No. 1 yellow 5.06-5.28; February 5.29-5.31; new 5.07-5.13. Wheat No. 2 soft red 3.03; new 2.47.

farm

Vaccine requirements included in farm package

WASHINGTON (AP) - A package of amendments to the 1985 farm bill provides assurance that every commercial animal vaccine will be required to meet government standards, even products that currently are unlicensed, a trade association says. The amendments, which are included in the Food Security Act, were sought by the association, the Animal Health Institute, and supported by the Agriculture Department. According to a recent report by the institute, the amendments “provide for uniform federal regulation of all commercially manufactured veterinary biologies” and include “a system for mandatory licensing of currently unlicensed products and manufacturing plants.” The new provisions will be eased into place over four years and will be handled by USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, which administers the 73-year-old Virus-Serum-Toxin Act. As reportednby the institute, the new provisionswill: —Consolidate regulatory authority un-

Destroy hens to curb eggs?

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Agriculture Department is considering “henocide” as a way to curb unwanted egg production. As announced on Dec. 13, the department’s Agricultural Marketing Service is considering establishing a federal marketing order for eggs. If approved by USDA and producers, the government would issue an order to “remove fowl during periods of extreme egg surpluses” and to establish a national egg research and promotion program. Tne nrst-year assessment on producers to pay for the removal of surplus hens would be one-half cent per dozen —ls cen-

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der the USDA, putting all animal biologies under the department’s licensing authority, whether the products move across state lines or are made and sold within a state. —Preserve state licensing authority where the state laws and regulations meet or exceed the federal requirements. A recent USDA survey showed “only two states actively regulate veterinary biologies made within their borders.” Those are California and South Dakota. —Allow USDA to exempt veterinarians and animal owners who make vaccines for use in their professional practice or in their own animals. —Allow for special licenses under which biologies needed in a disease emergency or to fight localized disease problems may be manufactured. “No unlicensed product will come off the market now because of these amendments,” said Fred H. Holt, president of the institute. “There’s every reason to believe that most of the currently unlicensed products marketed today will be licensed during the four-year phase-in period. ”

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