SNUPPY THE FIRST CLONED PUPPY
The creation of an identical copy of an organism is referred to as cloning. There are different types of cloning including; molecular DNA, therapeutic and reproductive (Wikipedia the free encyclopedia 2007). Snuppy who was welcomed into the world on April 24th 2005 by South Korean Scientists at Seoul National University’s College of Veterinary Medicine (Mott 2005) is an example of the latter and was produced via somatic cell nuclear transfer - the nucleus from the ear cell of the donor animal – a male Afghan was implanted into an egg cell that had been stripped of its own nucleus (Mott 2005). The egg now containing the cloned genetic material was then stimulated to start dividing and implanted into a surrogate mother (Vergano 2005). Although this procedure sounds simple enough Snuppy was the only surviving puppy resulting from the 123 female dogs implanted with the cloned embryos. The success of cloning Snuppy was remarkable as dogs proved notoriously difficult to clone because unlike other mammal’s dogs ovulate immature eggs (Vergano 2005) and only mature eggs can be used for cloning. Therefore the research team had to surgically collect mature unfertilised eggs from the donor’s fallopian tubes (Vergano 2005).
Researcher Hwang Woo Suk commented “Canine cloning holds promise for both veterinary and human health discoveries…”(Russell 2005). Therefore canine cloning may become the first beneficiary of stem cell medicine (Vergano 2005) however on the other hand this cloning is controversial raising ethical and moral issues…will this attract pet owners keen to re-create their much loved pets???
Posted by Bianca Briese
Student No: 41186765
References:
Primary Source:
Vergano, D 2005, Korean first to successfully clone a dog, USA Today, Science and Space, viewed 21 May 2007, http://usatoday.com/tech/science/2005-08-03-dog-clone_x.htm.
Secondary Sources:
Mott, M 2005, Dog cloned by South Korean Scientists, National Geographic Society, viewed 21 May 2007, http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/08/0803_050803_dog_clone.html
Russell, M 2005, Cloning Man’s Best Friend, Newsweek Technology and Science,
viewed 21 May 2007, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8849752/site/newsweek/
Wikipedia the free encyclopedia 2007, Cloning, Wikipedia Foundation Inc, viewed 23 May 2007, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloning
