Page "Gene knockout" Paragraph 3

Knockout is accomplished through a combination of techniques, beginning in the test tube with a plasmid, a bacterial artificial chromosome or other DNA construct, and proceeding to cell culture.

Individual cells are genetically transfected with the DNA construct.

Often the goal is to create a transgenic animal that has the altered gene.

If so, embryonic stem cells are genetically transformed and inserted into early embryos.

Resulting animals with the genetic change in their germline cells can then often pass the gene knockout to future generations.