Hundreds of clones per year
In China, the cloning of pigs was put on stream
A large Chinese company BGI, engaged in pig cloning, has become one of the largest in this field. During the year, the organization's specialists produce several hundred clones of these animals, according to the BBC (China cloning on an 'industrial scale').
The principle of the company's work is based on decoding the genome and making various changes to it. With the help of cloning, it is possible to obtain animals with an identical gene base.
So, scientists have created pigs with a missing growth gene, which is why the animals stopped growing at the age of one year. BGI specialists also received several pigs with congenital Alzheimer's disease. As the publication notes, such operations allow testing the latest medicines and treatment methods on animals.
According to the vice president of the company, Yutao Du, we are not talking about using any unique technology. However, due to the fact that up to 50 specialists are engaged in the cloning process at the same time, it is possible to produce a huge number of clones – up to 500 animals per year.
The procedure itself consists of embryo transplantation at an early stage of development. First, the eggs are removed from the pig under anesthesia, then they are processed in the laboratory, introducing the necessary DNA, and implanted back into the pig. According to statistics, at BGI from 70 to 80 percent of all operations are completed successfully.
In addition, there is a whole laboratory at BGI, whose specialists are working around the clock with the help of modern computers to decode genes in order to find the genetic causes of diseases and modifications necessary to eliminate them. One of the main goals of the company is to decode the genome of a million people, animals and plants.
The first cloning of an animal took place in 1970, when specialists managed to obtain a clone of a frog. The famous Dolly sheep, which became the first cloned mammal, was obtained in July 1996. In 2006, the popular science film Dolly the first clone sheep ("Dolly is the first cloned sheep") was filmed about Dolly's life and the course of the experiment.
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16.01.2014