|
Researchers have produced a new type of cloned mouse. The animal was created using DNA from a mature olfactory neuron - a nerve cell involved in processing smell.
Rudolf Jaenisch and colleagues inserted the nerve cell DNA into an empty mouse egg - a process known as nuclear transfer. The resulting embryos developed into mature, fertile, cloned mice with a full complement of smell-related proteins. This is impressive, as the donor neuron expressed only one such protein, and not the full range. In the past, cloned animals have been generated using DNA from dividing cells, such as skin cells. The new result shows that DNA from a non-dividing, mature cell can be reprogrammed to express the complete range of genes needed for normal development. Author contact: Rudolf Jaenisch
Whitehead Institute, MIT
Cambridge, MA
USA
Tel: +1 617 258 5186
E-mail: jaenisch@wi.mit.edu Kevin Eggan (co-author)
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
USA
Tel: +1 617 496 5611
E-mail: eggan@fas.harvard.edu Kristin Baldwin (co-author)
Columbia University
New York, NY
USA
Tel: +1 212 305 5648
E-mail: kb238@columbia.edu Read abstract online. (C) Nature press release.
Message posted by: Trevor M. D'Souza
|