![if !IE]> <![endif]>
DOLLY THE CLONED SHEEP
Cells in an early embryo are totipotent; that is, they possess the ability to divide and give rise to any type of body cell (liver, spleen, brain, etc.). Later on, cells lose this ability. They become committed to generating a particular tissue such as the nervous system or the digestive tract. Most cells in an adult animal can either no longer divide or else only give rise to a particular, specialized type of cell. During development, different genes are expressed in different tissues and others are shut down. So while almost all adult cells retain a complete genome, they don’t retain the ability to develop into new individuals.
The cloning of Dolly the sheep showed that it is possible to reset the clock of an adult cell to zero and start development again. In Dolly’s case, the trick was to starve cultured udder cells from the donor animal so that both the cell and the DNA stopped dividing (i.e., the cells entered the G0 stage of the cell cycle). What exactly happens to the DNA when the cell is starved is not known. However, there is probably some modification, including demethylation, which converts the DNA back to a form resembling that of an embryonic cell. When the resting G0 nucleus is placed in an egg cell whose own nucleus has been removed, it starts dividing again. The egg is then transplanted into a female animal, where it will develop into an embryo. If all goes well, a baby will be born (Fig. 15.18).
Early in 1996, at the Roslin Institute in Scotland, the world’s first cloned animal, Dolly the sheep, was born. The donor nucleus came from a mammary gland cell (also known as the udder) from a pregnant ewe. Since Dolly’s birth, a variety of other animals, including cattle, pigs, goats, mice, and cats have been cloned (Table 15.1). Dolly herself has been mated and gave birth to a lamb of her own—named Bonnie—during Easter 1998.
Strictly speaking, Dolly is not a complete clone. In addition to the nucleus, which contains the majority of the genetic information, animal cells contain a few genes in their mitochondria. In Dolly’s case, only the nuclear DNA was cloned. The mitochondrial DNA was provided by the egg cell that received the nucleus.
Copyright © 2018-2023 BrainKart.com; All Rights Reserved. Developed by Therithal info, Chennai.