In general, purebred puppies from the same litter can look about the same. But the recently born trio in Korea are not just close relatives - they are clones that share the same DNA.
The wonders of cloning
They were created from the same cells from a dog that was also a clone. Thus, scientists managed to obtain clones of the second generation.
The first clone was created by a team of 45 scientists back in 2005. Snoppy was created from cells obtained from the ear of an Afghan hound. This experiment was also carried out in Korea.
After 5 years, stem cells were collected from Snoppy, with which numerous studies were carried out.
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History of origin
The world's first cloning happened in 1952. Then the experiments were carried out with a tadpole. When a cell of an organism was transferred into a frog egg, replacing its original nucleus. But, even possessing the ability to transfer the nuclei of somatic cells, scientists worked in this direction for decades, until they came close to cloning mammals.
The first mammal of the clone is known all over the world. In 1996, everyone talked about the success of Dolly the sheep.
After that, scientists have cloned pigs, goats, mice, cats, rabbits and cattle. However, with the dogs, everything was much more complicated. A favorable period for this in the female occurs only once a year. And the maturation of the embryo goes through a more complex process than in other animals, which complicates the collection of the material necessary for experiments.
Snoppy
An Afghan hound named Tai became a donor for Snoppy, who was created from her ear cells. Then 123 dogs participated in the experiment, but scientists managed to achieve only three pregnancies. Of the three puppies, only Snoppy survived.
His donor, Ty, died of cancer at the age of 12, and Snoppy himself died from the same diagnosis at 10, which is still a long life for the dog. Therefore, suspicions about the short life of the clones were refuted. Previously, it was thought so, because Dolly died at 6 years old, despite the fact that usually the life expectancy of sheep can be 11-12 years.
And its continuation
The cells obtained from Snoppy were used for further cloning. 94 embryos were added to seven females. Only four of them were able to go through the entire process before birth. However, a few days later, one of the puppies died from acute diarrhea of unknown origin.
The rest of the puppies are completely healthy and doing well. Thanks to the available data on their predecessors - Tae and Snoppy, it is possible to study the processes of life and aging in order to understand how much more advanced clones of the second generation can be.
Christina Rudakova