β‐glucosidase, driven by porcine transthyretin promoter, specific expression in the liver of transgenic mice

Abstract Under the background of food security, using non‐grain feed instead of corn–soybean‐based feed is an effective measure to alleviate the food‐feed competition. While, non‐grain feeds are often rich in fiber, which cannot be digested by non‐ruminants. Producing heterologous enzymes in non‐ruminants to improve cellulose utilization rate is a new research strategy by transgenic technology. In this study, porcine transthyretin ( TTR ) promoter, signal peptide‐coding sequence (CDS), Saccharomycopsis fibuligera β‐glucosidase gene ( BGL1 )‐CDS, 6×His sequences fragments were fused into pGL3‐control vector to generate transgenic vector. Then, transgenic mice were generated by pronuclear microinjection of the linearized expression vectors. Transgenic mice and their offspring were examined by PCR‐based genotyping and copy number variation. Results showed that BGL1 was successfully integrated into the mouse genome and transmitted stably. Furthermore, reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR), Western blotting, and β‐glucosidase activity assay demonstrated that BGL1 was specifically expressed in the liver, and β‐glucosidase activity significantly increased. In addition, liver weight index, cellular morphology, and collagen fiber content of the liver showed that exogenous gene insertion did not cause any lesions to live. Taken together, our findings suggest that β‐glucosidase driven by TTR promoter was specifically expressed in the liver of transgenic mice.