Genetically Engineered Animals in Alcohol Research

This chapter discusses genetically engineered animal models in alcohol research. Alcohol addiction, the mechanism of alcohol action, and alcohol-induced pathologies involve complex biological mechanisms that are only beginning to be understood. Because it is important to understand these processes and mechanisms in humans, effects of alcohol at the level of the intact organism must be emphasized. Therefore, considerable effort has been devoted to animal models in alcohol research. The past two decades have witnessed dramatic advances in techniques that allow for experimental manipulation of individual genes in animals. The ability to engineer animals with precise modifications to the genome has greatly impacted alcohol research. Animals that differ at single genomic loci are powerful models for studying the contributions of individual gene products in the context of the whole animal. The focus of this chapter is to the introduce and distinguish various types of genetically modified animals, to briefly provide an overview of methods used to create these animals, and highlight illustrative examples of the way these animals are being used in alcohol-related studies.