More equine cloning success
| More equine cloning success Another cloned horse has arrived safe and well. French company Cryozootech announced on September 18th that a healthy colt foal, the clone of champion show-jumper Calvaro V, had been born in early August. It took five years to successfully produce a healthy clone from a skin biopsy. An earlier attempt produced a premature foal, which did not survive. The news comes hot on the heels of the announcement of the birth of a clone of Gem Twist. This grey thoroughbred gelding was the American Grand Prix Association's Horse of the Year on three occasions. He gained silver medals in both individual and team jumping at the Seoul Olympic games, and was awarded "World Best Horse" at the 1990 World Equestrian Games. | |
How does cloning work?
In a process called "somatic cell nuclear transfer" (SCNT), scientists transfer genetic material (DNA) from a donor cell into an oocyte (egg), from which the nucleus has been removed.
Each cell in the body contains a full complement of DNA. By the time the animal is born, the cells have become specialised - some becoming skin or muscle cells, some becoming blood cells or nerves. Certain parts of their DNA have been "switched on" while other parts are switched off. Each different type of cell is programmed to express a different set of genes.
DNA for cloning is often taken from skin cells. The tricky part of the procedure is to switch on all the genes. When the cell starts to divide it must behave like an early embryonic cell and differentiate into all the various cells needed in the body rather than remain as a skin cell. This is done by carefully controlling the environment in which the cell is maintained.
Once it is developing properly, the embryo is placed in the uterus of a surrogate mother - in the same way as happens in embryo transfer.
Clones are not always identical to the original. They have the same genes, but look slightly different. That's because of the way those genes are "expressed" - just as identical human twins may have differences in freckle patterns or hair colour.
Neither do clones have exactly the same temperament, personality or athletic ability as the animals from which they were cloned. A horse's genes are only partly responsible for these qualities. Also important are experience and training.
However Cryozootech has created these stallions not to be performance animals, but for breeding. In many disciplines, the best performers are often geldings. They are castrated long before they realise their true potential as performers.
Speaking in 2005 after the birth of Paris-Texas, the first cloned horse to be born in the USA, Dr Katrin Hinrichs, said "Cloning is not a way to produce competitors. There is just too much variability in the environment that a cloned foal experiences, both in the uterus and after birth. Just the fact that he spent his first seven days in an incubator can affect Paris Texas ' growth rate after birth, and even his performance as an adult. However, as a sire, Paris Texas should produce the same quality of foals, with exactly the same genetics, as did the donor stallion."
Reproduced with kind permission of Mark Andrews BVM&S CertEP MRCVS
© Copyright Mark Andrews - Equine Science Update 2008
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http://www.cryozootech.com
Added on: 28/10/08.
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