According to science fiction stories, clones are never perfect copies of the original organism. And copies of clones may even turn out to be strange and even "sloppy". But back to the real world, where animal cloning is still considered a relatively new technique. A team of researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign decided to find out what the actual consequences of cloning a clone are.
To this end, experts have made several clones of Snoppy, the world's first cloned dog. So far, the results have been generally positive.
Let's clarify that the Afghan Hound Snoppy dog was born in Seoul in 2005. In total, the animal lived for ten years - the usual lifespan for such a breed.
It is noteworthy that after the cloning of Dolly's sheep, scientists around the world began to "copy" many other animals, but they could not do the same with the dog due to the problems of maturation of the eggs of these animals in an artificial environment. And only the specialists of Seoul National University managed to achieve the result. The puppy was given a nickname consisting of a combination of the first letters of the name of Seoul National University (SNU) and the word "puppy" - Snoppy.
Snoppy (middle) in a 2005 photo.
Initially, experts debated the lifespan and health of the cloned animals. Some experts were convinced that clones live much shorter and worse (in terms of health) than their "original".
However, a 2013 study found it was entirely possible to successfully clone 25 generations of mice. In other words, scientists were able to produce 26 generations of clones from one mouse. Scientists have concluded that cloning is an effective technology, and potentially it can be used to clone animals endlessly.
By the way, scientists studying Dolly's sheep clones convinced us of the same. They also concluded that animal clones can have long and healthy lives.
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"The results of the study showed that our method avoids the accumulation of genetic abnormalities during the cloning process," said Professor Teruhiko Wakayama, head of the research team. He also noted that cloning technology with this level of efficiency can be used for the needs of agricultural livestock or for the preservation of rare animal species.
The new scientific work began with the fact that scientists back in 2010 took Snoppy's stem cells (then the dog was five years old). After that, four copies of the cloned dog were created, however, one puppy died a few days after birth.
However, experts decided that there was nothing unusual about the death of the puppy. This early death of newborn animals is fairly common, they said.
Nine months later, scientists state that the remaining three "copies" of the puppy are absolutely healthy. The study authors said in an interview that the puppies are under close supervision. Almost every aspect of their lives will be studied: the development of their diseases, the immune system, growth and metabolism.
The long-term results of the study of these clones of the clone, of course, will still only be studied by many specialists, but already now they look quite promising. In other words, scientists can bestow real "immortality" on some animals. By the way, the work will be especially useful for already extinct species.
So, scientists intend to "resurrect" the wingless auk 200 years after its disappearance.
We add, the Chinese experts went even further: this year they bred the world's first genetically modified cloned dog. Such technology, scientists say, will help fight diseases in our smaller brothers - for example, diabetes, as well as many genetic abnormalities.
The research results are presented in the scientific publication Scientific Reports.
