Can cloning save endangered species?
Overview of the potential use of cloning in conservation of species.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Great Museums Television (A Britannica Publishing Partner)A discussion of the efforts to save endangered species, notably the golden lion tamarin, at the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C., from the documentary Wild Thing! The Smithsonian National Zoo.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.This research is anything but a load of crap.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Learn about which of 20,000 species of bees are at risk of extinction.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.In 1996 the first clone of an adult mammal, a female sheep named Dolly, was born. Dolly was created using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), a process that later became a cornerstone of stem cell research.
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Transcript
In 2001, the world’s first cloned endangered species, an Asian ox known as a guar, was born to a domestic cow.
Although the calf died just a few days later due to an infection, its birth represented a breakthrough in the use of cloning for conservation. The guar was created using a technique known as cross-species nuclear transfer.
In this process, an egg was collected from a domestic cow, and scientists removed the nucleus from the egg. Skin cells from a living guar were also collected.
The nucleus from one of those cells was carefully harvested and transferred into the cow egg.
Because a skin cell nucleus contains all of an organism’s genetic information, the altered egg had all of the genetic material necessary for the guar to develop. The egg was then transferred into the cow’s uterus, where it implanted and developed like a regular fertilized egg.
However, unlike in sexual reproduction, a nuclear transfer results in a baby animal that is a genetically identical clone of the skin-cell donor. Although the baby guar did not survive, scientists are hopeful that this technique will be useful in the fight to save endangered species.
Such cloning could help small populations recover enough for the animals to resume natural breeding, and cells from endangered animals could be preserved in gene banks.
Although the calf died just a few days later due to an infection, its birth represented a breakthrough in the use of cloning for conservation. The guar was created using a technique known as cross-species nuclear transfer.
In this process, an egg was collected from a domestic cow, and scientists removed the nucleus from the egg. Skin cells from a living guar were also collected.
The nucleus from one of those cells was carefully harvested and transferred into the cow egg.
Because a skin cell nucleus contains all of an organism’s genetic information, the altered egg had all of the genetic material necessary for the guar to develop. The egg was then transferred into the cow’s uterus, where it implanted and developed like a regular fertilized egg.
However, unlike in sexual reproduction, a nuclear transfer results in a baby animal that is a genetically identical clone of the skin-cell donor. Although the baby guar did not survive, scientists are hopeful that this technique will be useful in the fight to save endangered species.
Such cloning could help small populations recover enough for the animals to resume natural breeding, and cells from endangered animals could be preserved in gene banks.
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