POPEYE PIGS

Scientists have attempted to create a meat healthier than normal pork meat by inserting the spinach fatty acid desaturation 2 (FAD2) gene into the pigs, causing the transgenic pigs to have a level of linoleic acid in their adipose tissue ten times higher than normal pigs. This is the first successful case of inserting a plant gene into a mammal
1. Genetic Modifications
  1. The pigs were made by injecting DNA of a spinach gene into a pig embryo. Pig embryos are opaque, so to visualize the nucleus, the embryos were centrifuged at 15000g for 3 minutes.[3] The ova were inserted into host animals and allowed to grow
  2. Microinjection of a plasmid into an embryo has been around since 1980, when J.W. Gordon discovered the technique. Genes injected in the pronuclear (when the sperm and egg are still separate) phase are retained and expressed in 5-10% of the offspring born. Additionally, only 70% of the offspring of a transgenic organism will transmit the gene to their offspring. Little Lemon Boy
  3. My opinion on this is that I find it stupid. It is a waste of time to genetically modify a pig to make it healthier to eat. You can just change your diet instead if you want to eat healthier.
  4. THANK YOU
2. Pigs implanted with spinach genes. The cause for this pig to be engineered was that people wanted to have healthier pork. So the produced pork was healthier than pork from normal pigs. The Popeye Pig has been engineered for 31 years.
  1. There were no concerns about the pigs, they come out normal with no health issues. But, there is no evidence that the pork is aymore healthier than regular pork.
3. The process is that scientists remove spinach genes from plants. Then, they insert the genes into fertilised pig eggs. Last, it is implanted into surrogate mother pigs. The benefits of this are that the gene was found to convert about a fifth of the piglets' saturated fatty acids into healthier linoleic acids. The disadvantages are that the scientists are manipulating animals to satisfy their morbid curiosity.
  1. An ethical issue of this may be that people may think this pork being produced is healthier for people, but they might find out later that it is not.

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POPEYE PIGS

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	Created by Shanmuga Balaji over 6 years ago