A real life Bolt might now be possible!
Since the cloning of Dolly the sheep in 1997, scientists have moved on to other mammals including mice, cows, goats, pigs, cats, rabbits and horses; but Dog cloning has always been regarded in the scientific community as the most difficult. As poor oocyte quality and the asynchronous reproduction cycle of the surrogate mother and the cloned embryo limit the application of the technology.
SinoGene, a private biotechnology company in China, has successfully cloned a dog named Long Long, China’s first dog created via somatic cell cloning and the world’s first dog created via gene editing. Long Long is not related to its surrogate mother and is a clone of the dog Apple, world’s first dog using gene editing.
Long Long was born on May 28. Another surrogate dog gave birth to two cloned dogs on June 14.
“In China there is a significant shortage of working dogs, which include police dogs, sniffer dogs and guide dogs. They are difficult to breed and most of them are purchased from overseas. The Nanchang police dog training base has expressed interest in our technology and is now discussing the possibilities of cooperation with us. The
technology will also benefit pet owners who have formed a strong bond with their dogs. It will be too painful for them to see their dogs pass away. A cloned dog would be able to help with that,” said Zhao Jianping, deputy general manager of SinoGene.The company said it will promote commercial dog cloning services worldwide by establishing a gene-editing development and research base and a bank for somatic cells and genes.
