The Technology Of Knockout Mouse - Essay Example

The conditional knockout mouse model is capable of bypassing the limits which are found with constitutive knockout models (Friedel, Wursy, Wefers & Kuhn 2011) Compared to the constitutive knockout model, the conditional knockout model strategy usually enables gene activation study at different development stages or ages. Inducible knock-outs also enable one to accurately model diseases that are age related.  Compared to the conditional knockout mouse model, the constitutive knockout model is a cost effective and fast solution to use in the preliminary study for the function of the target gene.

 The constitutive knockout model may be embryonic lethal to the target gene and is highly likely to result in the misregulation or deregulation of the other genes expression. A lethal knockout makes the genetically altered embryos fail to grow into adulthood.  The lack of adult mice usually limits embryonic development studies and makes it quite difficult to determine the gene function in relation to disease and health of human beings (Wurst & Kuhn 2009).  A conditional knockout like inducible deletion, safe knockout technology, and tissue specific knockout may serve by bypassing all the difficulties that are experienced in a constitutive knockout.

Unlike in the constitutive knockout model, the design process in the creation of inducible knockout model usually requires a thorough analysis to avoid any endogenous deregulation of genes or the expression of the truncated protein.