Since this is called the ‘Towards Dolly’ project after Dolly, the cloned sheep, created by scientists at the Roslin Institute, I was excited to find this article ‘Germline Manipulation of Livestock’ by ‘research workers’:  J. O. Bishop, A. L. Archibald, A. J. Clark, R. F. Lathe, J. P. Simons, and I. Wilmut on creating transgenic sheep in the 1986 Annual Report from the Animal Breeding Research Organisation. The article discusses the various new methods of changing animal genotypes that were recently developed. Also, how ‘a gene can be isolated from an animal or from man, altered in the laboratory, and introduced into individuals of the same or a different species of animal (usually a mouse) where it becomes incorporated into the genome and usually breeds true. Animals which have received genes in this way are said to be ‘transgenic’.’ Amongst the topics mentioned are: gene expression, cloned genes, focusing on mammary glands, the choice of sheep breed, proteins of commercial value, altering the composition of milk and ideas for the future.

I love the simplicity of the diagram showing the procedure to produce transgenic sheep!