Chinese scientists clone a goat

It was released on August 24, 2005 by Prof. Chen Dayuan (Da-Yuan Chen) from the CAS Institute of Zoology that the first success in cloning Asian Yellow Goat by nuclear transfer had recently been achieved in east China's Shandong Province.

Asian Yellow Goat (C. hircus), also named Nanjiang yellow goat, is a new breed developed after 40 years; efforts by Chinese scientists with support from the National "863" High-tech Development Program. It is the only new meat-use goat breed that has passed State evaluation.

Conventional methods of somatic cell nuclear transfer either by electro-fusion or direct nucleus injection have very low efficiency in animal somatic cell cloning. Cooperated with the Shandong Shengneng Group, Prof. Chen and colleagues used a simplified manipulation procedure to reconstruct Asian Yellow Goat cloning embryos by direct whole-cell intracytoplasmic injection into in vitro-matured oocytes enucleated at telophase II stage. This method achieved a high pregnancy rate (24%), high birth rate (20%), high natural delivery rate (100%), and high survival rate (83%), but low abortion rate (16%).

"The microsatellite DNA analysis has revealed that all cloned individuals have no genetic relations with the recipients, but have the same nuclear DNA with the donor," says Prof. Chen. The success of Asian Yellow Goat cloning has important significance. On one hand, it is showed that somatic cells from an Asian Yellow Goat adult can completely dedifferentiate and restore totipotency under the guidance of ordinary goat ooplasm; and on the other hand, the remodeled egg can implant and undergo normal development to term in the uterus of ordinary goats such as local white goats, black goats and milking goats.

The improvement of the cloning technique may provide new approaches for conserving and saving endangered and valuable animal species, and the present research on Asian Yellow Goat cloning will provide useful data for improving the cloning efficiency.