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Stem cell research pioneer Hwang Woo-suk is once again sending tremors
through the scientific world by cloning the world¡¯s first dog. ¡°A
cloned puppy was born to a surrogate mother on April 24,¡± the Seoul
National University professor said Wednesday. ¡°The puppy is genetically
identical to an Afghan hound which provided its somatic cell.¡± The animal was made by a process known as somatic cell nuclear
transfer (SCNT) by taking the nucleus from a dog¡¯s egg and replacing it
with the nucleus from a somatic cell obtained from a male Afghan hound.
The creature has been named Snuppy -- a compound of ¡°puppy¡± and
¡°SNU¡± -- and will be used in experiments to study cures for human
diseases. Hwang¡¯s team said since dogs are easily tamed and share many
common ailments with man, they are particularly suitable for research. Since Dolly the Sheep was cloned in 1996, some 10 mammals have
been cloned through SCNT, including rats, pigs, and cats. Dogs have
been difficult to clone since the ova of most mammals reach maturity
within the ovaries and are ready for fertilization, but dogs ovulate
immature ova that are difficult to use in cloning.
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Cloned dog Snuppy and its surrogate mother
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Hwang said he was able to obtain the right ova for cloning by
pinpointing the precise place where they mature and the exact time. ¡°By
cloning dogs, which has been considered the biggest hurdle in animal
cloning, our team has accumulated the world¡¯s best know-how in the
field,¡± he said. The research appeared in the prestigious science journal Nature on Aug. 4, with Snuppy featured at the bottom of the cover.
However, the move is likely to fuel an ongoing debate about pet
cloning which has been escalating since the world's first cat clone
¡°CC¡±¡¯ was born in the U.S. in 2002. In the U.S., a pet cloning industry
has sprung up over pleas from cat lovers to clone their feline friends
despite a cost of several ten of thousands of dollars. Encouraged by
this, cloning firms have been eyeing dog cloning too, pouring massive
investment into research. But Hwang warned the research was being conducted for the
purpose of curing diseases of both humans and dogs, not to replicate
pets. Hwang¡¯s team is to embark on another project, cloning the Korean
wolf, which faces extinction.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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