Cloning Hits A Barrier At Sixth Generation

TERRADAILY

File Photo: All the participant mice in the cloning process are shown in this photo released by ProBio America, Inc. after 22 mice were cloned at the University of Hawaii. Top left is the egg donor, top right is the nucleus donor, the white mouse lower middle is the surrogate mother and the two brown brown mice on either side of her are the cloned offspring of the nucleus donor. AFP PHOTO/PROBIO AMERICA

by Phil Cohen
New York - Sept. 20, 2000
Cloned animals may be harder to clone again, say researchers who have struggled to produce six generations of cloned mice. The result hints at a hidden defect in animals produced by the technology.

Teruhiko Wakayama of the Rockefeller University in New York and his team say the mice in their experiment appeared healthy. But it became harder to clone them with each successive generation.

Only one mouse was produced in the sixth generation despite massive effort. And this lone clone was eaten by its foster mother. "Either it was sick and died or the foster mother didn't like it and destroyed it," he says.

Nuclear transfer
Cloning is based on a technique known as nuclear transfer. The nucleus of a donor cell is fused with an egg stripped of its own genetic material. The result is an animal that is genetically identical to the animal from which the donated nucleus came.

Wakayama and his team first hit the headlines two years ago when they cloned the mouse Cumulina, the first clone produced from an adult animal since Dolly the sheep.

They also announced the remarkable feat of serial cloning. By using donor cells from each successive generation, they produced four generations of clones. In their new report, they report for the first time that they could not produce mice past the sixth generation.

Hidden flaw
They explored two possible reasons. First, the end of chromosomes or "telomeres" have been seen to shorten in some cloned animals. This erosion could make viable offspring impossible after serial cloning. Secondly, they suspected that the general health of the clones might deteriorate with each set of new offspring.

But neither one of these possibilities seems to be true. In fact, the mouse telomeres seem to grow slightly with each generation. And all the clones could navigate mazes and pass other cognitive tests with flying colours. They also aged gracefully - one fifth generation mouse is alive and well in mouse middle age, 18 months.

Wakayama's team continues to search for some hidden flaw. "Our results suggest clones are accumulating some abnormality," he says. The fact that the final animal was eaten by its foster mother might suggest the defect is obvious to rodent senses, if not human testing.

Source: Nature (vol 407, p 318)

This article appeared in the September 20 issue of New Scientist New Scientist. Copyright 2000 - All rights reserved. The material on this page is provided by New Scientist and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without written authorization from New Scientist.

TERRADAILY

Bio Science Gets Big Boost

New York - July 17, 2000
Three of New York's leading research institutions announced the creation of a $160 million collaborative program in basic biological research sparked by a private donor who will contribute half the total investment.

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