Lentiviruses as gene transfer vectors have been used successfully to transfect mammal embryonic stem cells and germline stem cells, but this has not been attempted in avian primordial germ cells (PGCs). PGCs were isolated from the gonads of Isa-brown chicken embryos at stage 28 and co-cultured with gonadal stroma cells. A lentiviral vector pLenti-CMV-EGFP was constructed and the virus harvested by cotransfecting 293FT cells with the vector and packaging plasmids. Concentrated lentiviruses were used to transfect chicken PGCs, the transfection efficiency was up to 24.19%.
