Donald Trump confuses transgenic mice with 'transgender mice'; what are they?

US President Donald Trump would make a full-length speech, and the meme-machine wouldn't have a field day? Seems like an impossible ask. Of late, the White House has been the hub of many interesting and many controversial statements. Trump, has ensured the media has enough fodder for daily amusing updates and social media remains rife with hilarious memes.

And it's happened yet again! The usual course took it way after Trump delivered his first speech as the US President in his second term to Congress on Tuesday. In his address to Congress, Trump called out the previous Joe Biden administration for spending millions of dollars on making “mice transgender” in a slip-up for what was supposed to be “transgenic mice”.

Trump called out the Biden administration for spending taxpayer dollars on “transgender mice and other gender-bending social experiments” overseas, saying, “$8 million for making mice transgender. This is real.”

What are transgenic mice?

Transgenic mice are mice that have had foreign DNA introduced into their genome. This DNA becomes part of every cell and tissue of the mouse.

How are transgenic mice made?

To create transgenic mice, the most common method is pronuclear microinjection, where a DNA construct containing the desired gene is injected directly into the pronucleus of a fertilized mouse egg, which is then implanted into a surrogate female mouse to develop into a transgenic offspring; this process involves carefully harvesting donor eggs, preparing the DNA construct, microinjecting the DNA, and transferring the injected eggs to a pseudopregnant female for development.

Key steps:

Construct design: Create the DNA sequence (transgene) you want to introduce, including regulatory elements to control its expression.

Harvesting eggs: Collect fertilized eggs (zygotes) from a female mouse shortly after mating.

Microinjection: Using a specialized micropipette, inject the DNA construct into the pronucleus of the fertilized egg.

Embryo transfer: Implant the injected eggs into the oviduct of a pseudopregnant female mouse.

Genotyping: Analyze offspring to identify those that have successfully integrated the transgene into their genome.

Important considerations:

Ethical considerations: Generating transgenic mice requires strict adherence to animal welfare guidelines and Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) approval.

Expertise required: This is a complex procedure that typically requires specialized training and access to a facility equipped for handling mouse embryos.

Gene editing techniques: Newer technologies like CRISPR-Cas9 can be used to modify genes in mice precisely, offering more targeted genetic manipulations.

Why are transgenic mice important?

Transgenic mice are used in laboratories to study human diseases, develop treatments, and understand gene function.

Disease research:

Cancer: Transgenic mice are used to study skin cancer, thoracic oncology, and surgical oncology.

Alzheimer's disease: Transgenic mice are used to develop immunotherapies and understand the biological basis of the disease.

Human genetic diseases: Transgenic mice are used to model human genetic diseases like sickle-cell anemia and osteogenesis imperfecta.

Treatment development: Human blood cells, hormones, and proteins: Transgenic mice are used to produce human blood cells, hormones, and other proteins used to treat human disease.

Gene function:

Skeletal muscle physiology: Transgenic mice are used to study gene function, define cell populations, and perform stem cell lineage tracing.

Tissue-specific expression: Transgenic mice are used to identify cis-regulatory elements that control tissue-specific expression.

Examples of transgenic mice

Examples of transgenic mice include humanized mice, tumor mouse models, and mice used to study Alzheimer's disease.

Humanized mice: These mice are used to study human diseases, such as infections by human-specific viruses.

Tumor mouse models: These mice are used to study tumor biology and to develop new cancer treatments.

APP transgenic mice: These mice are used to study Alzheimer's disease.

Humanized mouse xenograft models: These mice are used to mimic the tumor microenvironment and the cross-talk between the tumor and immune cells.