Fish produced by nuclear transfer from cultured cells

Patent Number: 7,332,647

One may notice that many of the patents in the StemCellPatents.com database direct their claims towards "mammals" here is one exception. The current patent is directed towards cloning of fish. The inventors state that nuclear transfer in fish was actually performed since the 1960s, however despite much work in the area, this is the first time that cultured cells are used as nucleus donors. This difference is important since culture cells can be genetically manipulated, whereas this is very difficult to do in primary cells. Why would someone want to genetically manipulate fish? Besides basic research purposes, genetically manipulated fish may have many practical implementations for the food industry.

The first independent claim essentially covers a method of making a transgenic fish through the steps of: a) culturing an embryonic fibroblast cell from a type of fish, b) transplanting the nucleus from the embryonic fish fibroblast into the egg of a parental fish that has been enucleated, and c) culturing the reconstructed cell. Dependent claims mention specific modifications that can be performed to the donor cell line. For example, claim 2 covers "at least one exogenous gene" being inserted into the donor cell. Claim 5 provides specific characteristics of the donor cell proliferation ability, specifically, that the cell has the ability to multiply for specific number of doublings.

The second independent claim instead of covering a method of making a transgenic fish, covers a method of making a progeny fish, specifically, Danio rerio, with similar dependent claims as the first independent claim.

View this patent on the USPTO website.