Cloning of laboratory mouse by nuclear transfer: mecahnism, techniques and potential applications
2004
Valdez, C.A.(Philippines Univ. Los Baños, College, Laguna (Philippines). Dept. of Veterinary Clinical Sciences)
For many years, developmental biologists attempted to produce sets of identical animals called clones by the technique of nuclear transfer. Although clones could be produced by embryo splitting, the number of identical offspring that could be generated is limited. Cloning by nuclear transfer offers the production of unlimited number of indentical offsprings, and this technique involves the trasfer of a donor cell nucleus (kayoplast) into the cytoplasm of a recipient cell (cytoplast) whose nucleus has been removed. Earlier works in mammalian cloning started in the mouse using embryonic cells as donor nuclei, but a major breakthrough has been achieved in recent years by cloning using adult somatic cells which resulted to the birth of cloned lamb (Dolly). This was followed by successful somatic cell transfer in other animal species. However, the exact mechanism of cloning by nuclear transfer is not yet fully understood including some important factors that influence the efficiency of this technique such as cell types of donor and recipient cells, fusion methods, cell cycle synchrony and nuclear reprogramming. This paper reviews recent data on the said factors and also describes established cloning techniques performed in the mouse and other species. Furthermore, the potential applications of cloning in relation to animal production as well as problems and limitations of the current nuclear transfer technology especially its low efficiency rate will also be discussed.
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