Abstract
To investigate the fidelity of transgene transmission and expression, we produced transgenic mice carrying bovine $\beta$-casein/bovine grwoth hormone(bGH) fusion gene and examined transmission efficiency and expression level of the transgene in the founders and their progeny. The transgene was composed of 1.8 kb bovine $\beta$-casein promoter and 2.1 kb bGH gene. Ten transgenic mice were produced. Milk and mammary gland were collected from eight transgenic lines at 10-day lactation and a, pp.ied to Western and Northern blot analyses. The bGH expression was detected in four of them. The concentrations of bGH in milk were highly variable from 4$\mu\textrm{g}$/ml to 600$\mu\textrm{g}$/ml depending on the lines. The bGH mRNA level in mammary gland was closely correlated with the bGH concentration in milk in each transgenic line. These results indicated that bGH transgene expression was a, pp.opriately regulated in the mammary gland and secreted into milk in transgenic mice. By using two transgenic lines(#2, #7) secreting a considerable amoung of bGH into their milk, the inferitance and maintenance of transgenic phenotype were assessed in successive four generations. The mean transmission frequencies of transgene in lines #2 and #7 were 34% and 40%, respectively. The bGH concentration in milk were 80, 240, 120, 60$\mu\textrm{g}$/ml in each G0(generation 0), G2, G3, G4 generation of line #2 and 600, 1600, 860, 900$\mu\textrm{g}$/ml in each G1. G2, G3, G4 generation of line #7. These results demonstrated that bovine $\beta$-casein/bGH gene was stably transmitted from generation to generation in a Menelian fashion in trasgenic mice and consistenly expressed in their milk throughout the generations, although there was a little variation in the transmission frequency and expression level of the transgene between generations.
