Using a single drop of blood taken from the tail, Japanese scientists were able to successfully clone a mouse. The technology was similar to that used to clone Dolly the sheep. The mouse grew up healthy. and was able to reproduce
More info: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23068423
Me next!
ReplyDeleteWow. Hope I don't get cut. The world would never recover
ReplyDeletethat's gr8
ReplyDeleteFirst step towards immortality or at least close to it:-)
ReplyDeleteThat's a good question Merry Welly . After a quick search, it looks like some animal clones do have telomeres shorter than normal. However, it seems that the telomeres on their reproductive cells get reset and look similar to those of non-clones, allowing them to have normal offspring. Telomere length in clones may be affected by whether a stem cell or an adult cell is used for cloning purposes.
ReplyDeleteMike Gleason Merry Welly The reason why telomeres can be maintained is because when the cells are reprogrammed into embryonic stem cells, they activate telomerase, which is an enzyme that can fix the telomere ends. The biology of this quite a bit more complex than this but basically, stem cells have the capacity for unlimited cell division because of this machinery. Cancer cells are somewhat similar, thus are immortal.
ReplyDeleteRelated, the same scientists at the Riken insitute in Japan, who reported this, cloned the progeny of cloned mice, 25 rounds - generating 600 identical offsprings.