Showing posts with label cloning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cloning. Show all posts

2011-02-01

Mammoth Cloning


Mammoth 'could be reborn in four years'

The woolly mammoth, extinct for thousands of years, could be brought back to life in as little as four years thanks to a breakthrough in cloning technology.









This is not the first time scientists have dreamed Jurassic Park-esque fantasies--previous attempts to clone the woolly mammoth failed in the 1990's, mainly because soft tissue extracted from the ice had been, well, frozen for over 5,000 years (and so the DNA was damaged).

However, in 2008 Dr. Teruhiko Wakayama of Kobe's Riken Center for Developmental Biology, pioneered a technique for cloning mammals from frozen soft tissue. Wakayama's technique was successfully implemented in cloning a mouse from the cells of a mouse that had been frozen for 16 years.

Iritani plans to use Wakayama's technique to first identify viable mammoth cells, and then extract the nuclei of the estimated 2 to 3 percent that will be in good condition. Iritani plans to obtain the mammoth tissue from a mammoth preserved in a Russian research laboratory, the Yomiuri Shinbun reports.

The extracted nuclei will then be injected into the (we assume fertilized) egg cells of a female African elephant, to create an embryo with mammoth DNA.

Center for Developmental Biology


Genomic Reprogramming 
 
Teruhiko Wakayama
A limitless number of clones of animal can be generated from its somatic cells. Only a few years ago, such a statement would have belonged to the realm of science fiction, but now thanks to advances in the tehnology known as micromanipulation, which allows researchers to work with individual cells and their nuclei, that fiction has become reality. 



Transfer of a somatic nucleus into an enucleated egg

Somatic cell nuclear transfer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In genetics and developmental biology, somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a laboratory technique for creating a clonal embryo, using an ovum with a donor nucleus (see process below). It can be used in embryonic stem cell research, or, potentially, in regenerative medicine where it is sometimes referred to as "therapeutic cloning". It can also be used as the first step in the process of reproductive cloning.



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2009-04-24

Ant Reproduces Without Sex

Clipped from: PHOTO IN THE NEWS: All-Female Ant Species Found
National Geographic

PHOTO IN THE NEWS: All-Female Ant Species Found





April 17, 2009—Save the males? Too late for Mycocepurus smithii (pictured). This leaf-cutter ant species is all female and thrives without sex of any kind—ever—according to a new study. The ants have evolved to reproduce only when queens clone themselves.
Clipped from: BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Ants inhabit 'world without sex'

British Broadcasting Corporation

Ants inhabit 'world without sex'


An Amazonian ant has dispensed with sex and developed into an all-female species, researchers have found.

The ants reproduce via cloning - the queen ants copy themselves to produce genetically identical daughters.

[...]

Anna Himler, the biologist from the University of Arizona who led the research, told BBC News that the team used a battery of tests to verify their findings.

[...]

There are advantages to life without sex, Dr Himler explained.

"It avoids the energetic cost of producing males, and doubles the number of reproductive females produced each generation from 50% to 100% of the offspring."



Clipped from: Mycocepurus smithii - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mycocepurus smithii

Mycocepurus smithii is an attini fungus-growing ant from Latin America whose species consists exclusively of females which reproduce asexually. The queen reproduces by parthenogenesis and all ants in a colony are female clones of the queen.[1] The ants cultivate a garden of fungus inside their colony grown with pieces of dead vegetables and other insects. It is this capacity for farming which initially prompted research into the species as a basal genus member would provide insight into the natural history of the fungal-cultivating ant tribe, Attini.[2]


Himler research

The research team was led by a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin in the United States, Anna Himler.[1][5] The researchers initially were interested in the ants' capability for cultivating fungus.[5] The researchers used DNA profiling to confirm that each member of the colony was genetically identical to the queen.[5] They also discovered through a process of dissection that the mussel organ, a female docking apparatus within the vagina used to hook the mate's genitalia,[6] had degenerated in members of this species.[7] A total of six separate tests were carried out, with the researchers unable to locate any male members of the species.[1] The team's findings were then published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.[7]



Clipped from: Mycocepurus smithii (Forel, 1893) - Encyclopedia of Life








Sources:
  1. PHOTO IN THE NEWS: All-Female Ant Species Found
  2. Mycocepurus smithii - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  3. BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Ants inhabit 'world without sex'
  4. Mycocepurus smithii (Forel, 1893) - Encyclopedia of Life
Related:
  1. Females get along fine without males - in the world of tropical ants - Telegraph
  2. Machado Lab


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