PRODUCTION OF GERMLINE CHIMERIC CHICKENS BY TRANSFER OF CULTURED PRIMORDIAL GERM-CELLS

Primordial germ cells (PGCs) from stage 27 (5.5-day-old) Korean native ogol chicken embryonic germinal ridges were cultured in vitro for 5 d ays. As in in vivo culture, these cultured PGCs were expected to have already passed beyond the migration stage. Approximately 200 of these PGCs were transferred into 2.5-day-old white leghorn embryonic blood s tream, and then the recipient embryos were incubated until hatching. T he rate of hatching was 58.8% in the manipulated eggs. Six out of 60 r ecipients were identified as germline chimeric chickens by their feath er colour. The frequency of germline transmission of donor PGCs was 1. 3-3.1% regardless of sex. The stage 27 PGCs will be very useful for co llecting large numbers of PGCs, handling of exogenous DNA transfection during culture, and for the production of desired transgenic chickens . (C) 1997 Academic Press Limited.