Their classical use in animal breeding has been to increase the number of superior genotypes but with advancement in biotechnology and genomics they have become a tool for transgenesis and genotyping.
The main application is to exploit female reproductive capacity like more offspring from valuable donors, offspring from infertile donors. Also, to conserve elite genetic materials and to perform gene transfer.
It is well recognized that bovine embryos derived in vivo are of superior quality to those derived from in vitro maturation, fertilization and culture.
Technologies dependent upon embryo transfer have the potential to increase the efficiency of quantitative genetic selection as well as marker -assisted selection, simplify cross-breeding and germplasm conservation procedures and allow incorporation of transgenesis into dairy cattle.
Embryo technology
