Can the First Fighting Bull Clone Provide Hope for Endangered Species in the Future?
(Image courtesy: AFP)
The word cloning entered the lexicon of the common layman for the first time in 1996 with the cloning of Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be successfully cloned from an adult cell. According to scientists from Spain they have recently cloned a fighting bull for the first time as well, using more or less the same technique used to clone Dolly.
About the calf…
The calf, named ‘Got’ was born on Tuesday, 18th of May at a ranch in northern Spain, and was weighing in at 24.7 kg at the time of birth.
The project…
Which took 3 years and 28,000 Euros, utilized a technique called nuclear transfer. Here DNA from an adult is inserted into a female cow’s eggs and the resulting embryo is then implanted into surrogate females.
Why bother?
A scientific landmark of this nature promises something more ambitious for the future. The project leader, Vicente Torrent hopes that the work of his team would help to set up a ‘tissue bank’ which might be useful in saving critically endangered species from disappearing from the face of the earth in the future.
Via: The Hindu
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