Date: December 9, 2016
Source: University of California,
Davis
It has been 20 years since Dolly
the sheep was successfully cloned in Scotland, but cloning mammals remains a
challenge. A new study by researchers from the U.S. and France of gene
expression in developing clones now shows why most cloned embryos likely fail.
Dolly was cloned using the
technique of "somatic cell nuclear transfer," when a nucleus from an
adult cell is transferred into unfertilized egg that has had its nucleus
removed, and is then shocked with electricity to start cell growth. Embryos are
then transferred to recipient mothers who carry the clones to birth.
Cloning cattle is an
agriculturally important technology and can be used to study mammalian
development, but the success rate remains low, with typically fewer than 10
percent of the cloned animals surviving to birth. The majority of losses are
due to embryonic death, a failure during the implantation process, or the
development of a defective placenta.
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