Chapter category: Reproductive Biology

Cloning Cattle: The Methods in the Madness

This chapter appears in the following book:

Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

Edited by: Peter Sutovsky
ISBN: 0-387-37753-0
» Get more information about this book at landesbioscience.com «

Chapter authors:
Björn Oback and David N. Wells

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Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is much more widely and efficiently practiced in cattle than in any other species, making this arguably the most important mammal cloned to date. While the initial objective behind cattle cloning was commercially driven—in particular to multiply genetically superior animals with desired phenotypic traits and to produce genetically modified animals—researchers have now started to use bovine SCNT as a tool to address diverse questions in developmental and cell biology. In this paper, we review current cattle cloning methodologies and their potential technical or biological pitfalls at any step of the procedure. In doing so, we focus on one methodological parameter, namely donor cell selection. We emphasize the impact of epigenetic and genetic differences between embryonic, germ, and somatic donor cell types on cloning efficiency. Lastly, we discuss adult phenotypes and fitness of cloned cattle and their offspring and illustrate some of the more imminent commercial cattle cloning applications.

Björn Oback
Reproductive Technologies, AgResearch Ltd., Ruakura Research Centre

David N. Wells
Reproductive Technologies, AgResearch Ltd., Ruakura Research Centre

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Cloning Cattle: The Methods in the Madness

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Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is much more widely and efficiently practiced in cattle than in any other species, making this arguably the most important mammal cloned to date. While the i...

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Chapter category: Reproductive Biology

Cloning Cattle: The Methods in the Madness

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