How are knockout animals e.g.alfa ERKO mice produced/generated/made?

Answer 1

Scientists began to create genetically modified mice in the 1980s (Gordon and Ruddle 1981; Palmiter and Brinster 1985). The first genetically modified mice contained randomly inserted transgenes and were used in studies of gene function in the whole animal. In the late 1980s, a convergence of advances in developmental, reproductive, and molecular biology made it possible for scientists to mutate or cause a loss of function in specific genes (Gordon 1989). Using targeted mutations in transgenic mice, scientists began to develop knockout mouse models of human disease to test the role of specific genes in disease etiology and progression (Eddy 1993; Smithies and Kim 1994).