The first goat to be cloned using an adult cell died last week, shortly after being born. The goat, called Yuanyuan, was cloned by a team of Chinese scientists using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) - the 'Dolly technique'.
The researchers removed the genetic information from a donor egg cell and replaced it with the nucleus of an adult ear cell. The egg was then activated and placed in the womb of a surrogate mother goat to grow and develop. But Yuanyuan died just 36 hours after birth, because of severe lung problems. Professor Zhang Yong, of Northwest University, Xian, China said: 'The death means that cloning technology leaves much room for improvement.
Three biotech firms have reported successfully cloning goats, but they used fetal skin cells rather than adult cells.
Sources and References
-
'Dolly-style' cloned goat dies after 36 hours
-
Chinese goat clone dies
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.