Development of somatic cell nuclear transfer technique for biomedical and agricultural research (year II) : report

Abstract

There are two objectives of the somatic nuclear transfer studies. The first objective was to evaluate the possibility to produce the inter-species cloned embryos from donor cells of different animals transfer to rabbit, pig or swamp buffalo oocytes. The second objective was to study the donor cell type can significantly affect the in vitro development of cloned rabbit embryos. The experiments are described in three chapters: Chapter 1: The in vitro development of inter-species cloned embryos, reconstructed using a rabbit recipient oocyte. Chapter 2: The in vitro development of inter-species cloned embryos, reconstructed using pig and swamp buffalo oocytes. Chapter 3: The in vitro development of cloned rabbit embryos derived from various primary somatic cell types. From the study, we found that, rabbit oocytes can be served as recipient cytoplasm for donor cells from different kinds of animals. Pig and buffalo oocytes are possibly be used as recipient cytoplasm for producing intra-and inter-species cloned embryos but the developmental rates of the cloned embryos are limited. The result of the in vitro development of cloned embryos derived from various primary somatic cell types showed that the donor cell type can significantly affect the in vitro development of cloned rabbit embryos. The outcome of research is to obtain basic knowledge on reprogramming of foreign donor nuclei to recipient cytoplasm, establishing the genetic banking and offering an opportunity to genetic rescue of endangered mammal.