Generation of cloned transgenic pigs rich in omega-3 fatty acids

Abstract

Meat products are generally low in omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids, which are beneficial to human health. We describe the generation of cloned pigs that express a humanized Caenorhabditis elegans gene, fat-1, encoding an n-3 fatty acid desaturase. The hfat-1 transgenic pigs produce high levels of n-3 fatty acids from n-6 analogs, and their tissues have a significantly reduced ratio of n-6/n-3 fatty acids (P < 0.001).

Figure 1

Partial gas chromatograph traces showing the polyunsaturated fatty acid profiles of total lipids extracted from tail tissues of a wild-type piglet (WT, piglet no. 2) and a fat-1 transgenic piglet (Fat-1, piglet no. 4). Both animals were 1 week old and fed with the same milk replacer. Note the levels of n-6 polyunsaturated acids (l8:2n-6, 20:4n-6, 22:4n-6 and 22:5n-6) are lower whereas n-3 fatty acids (marked with *, 18:3n-3, 20:5n-3, 22:5n-3 and 22:6n-3) are abundant in the transgenic piglet no. 4 as compared with the nontransgenic piglet no. 2, in which there is very little n-3 fatty acid.