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Science

First Inter-Species Egg Clone Imminent 13

Posted by michael from the invasion-of-the-body-snatchers dept.
ArghBlarg writes: "As an update to their October report, New Scientist Magazine reports that the birth of the first animal cloned by placing the genome of one into the egg of another is only a week away. The egg of a domestic cow had its nucleus removed and the genes of a female gaur, which died in 1993, were inserted. If the birth is a success, it clears the way for endangered (or even extinct) animals with closely-related, extant cousins, to be re-created. Perhaps 'species banks' can become a reality eventually."
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First Inter-species Egg Clone Imminent More

First Inter-species Egg Clone Imminent

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  • But are there chickens that have been engineered to lay cheese yet?
  • The article mentioned they they were able to only clone females. Why? As I know little of cloning was the Jurasic Park guy telling the truth?
    And did the group engineering this great feet of science consult an ethics group of any kind?

    --
    Spelling by m-w.com [m-w.com].

  • James P Hogan wrote a short story similar to this. Definately worth a read.
  • Remember though it requires "animals with closely-related".

    That nullifies a majority of extinct species.

    Yes, but wouldn't we be able to rectify that problem in a few generations? After we bred the newly-reborn-recently-extinct animals for genetic purity (assuming they wouldn't be sterile, no I'm not a biologist), couldn't we then use THEM as carriers for other extinct species that they are more closely related to than any other existing species?

    Is this even feasible?

    If it is, we could eventually have enough samples to be able to clone up any animal, extinct or not.

    This might be beneficial solely for it's cross referencing potential to our understanding of how evolution works...

    Can anyone elaborate on this prospect?
  • I JP the cloning was done with only females to limit breeding. (This was explaned better in the book)

    In the article they were cloning FROM a female because that is whats avalable. If they had male DNA ....

    Ethics....Good God man... they are playing at being GOD.....What do they need with Ethics?

  • As far as I recall (and note I'm no geneticist, not even a biologist...or even a college grad) the animal thats born will look almost identical to a guar, but act, and on a genetic level be mostly a cow. I'm trying to remember what I read this from, but it had something to do with the fact that this is not a guar egg, but a cow egg with guar dna. I also recall something about cross cloning of zebras... but that was awhile ago, and I don't know how it turned out.
  • This is such old news! Doesn't everyone know that KFC has been doing genetic engineering on it's chickens for years! How do you think the chicken wings get that big???? A bird with wings that large and muscular would be able to tear off it's shackles and start it's own revolution! As I understand it, they've crossed the genes of a chicken with that of an average house-spider. The result is a very cunning chicken, able to climb walls that (as an added bonus) has eight legs. Thus making KFC that much more profitable! I even heard they have chickens that are able to do trigonometry at the college level and another that scored perfectly on it's SAT's.
  • Remember though it requires "animals with closely-related".

    That nullifies a majority of extinct species.

    I wouldn't worry about any dinosaurs etc, but that still leaves the possibility of humans.

    Could you imagine some rich right-wing, nazi wanting to clone Hitler?
  • Wow, we can recreate Mammoths and Mastodons so we can then make authentic Ice-age jerky. I can't wait.

    To the Moon!
    http://www.beefjerky.com
  • How long till this happens with humans. I can see it now? Pigs used to carry human fetus. Does the pig have any rights in a paternity suit? Would certin really weird Pop musician who wears a glove have himself cloned and carried by some exotic animal. Good technology scarry implications

  • Then America can be destroyed twice!

  • No, on a genetic level it will be mostly a guar, because genes are made of DNA, and the cow DNA has been replaced with guar DNA. There may be some cow mitochondria (depends if the mitochodrial DNA was also replaced), but it will be mostly a guar.

    Now, given that the developmental hormonal triggers will be from the host cow womb, it's probable that the guar on a macroscopic level will have significant differences from a "natural" guar -- it might not even look all that much like a guar. If it even survives birth. But genetically, it will be a guar.

  • If you find amber with a fly in it, incinerate it (Score:3)

    by Bojay Iverson ( 261262 ) on Tuesday January 09, 2001 @03:15AM (#521482)
    Please, no dinosaurs. I'll be interested to see what happens with this guy [clonejesus.com] though.

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