Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Cloning

ThoughtsIControl - 24-11-2020 at 19:54

I'm curious who else has heard of the South Korean experiment. I won't talk about their work and instead, I'll use a different animal. It should be noted that Nature published this South Korean scientist before retracting the statement because of the backlash.

Procedure to clone a pig:

I take a skin cell off of the pig. I arbitrarily take a liver cell, too. I remove the nucleus from each cell. The two genetically identical nuclei I'm left with are to replace the nucleus of an egg and a sperm. After careful replacement, I am left with a genetically identical egg and sperm. In a petri dish with proper nutrients, I create the zygote. I let the zygote split into two cells. Then I transfer these cells to a surrogate womb in a different pig. The pregnant surrogate eventually produces offspring. The pig will be an exact clone of the original pig I took the DNA from.

I'm hoping to stir up some conversation so let me know what you all think.
Will someone potentially make an army of cloned pigs? :o

B(a)P - 24-11-2020 at 20:11

This was done with a sheep, 'Dolly' in 1996.
The Dr Evils of the world have had 24 years to come up with their animal armies.
Presumably robots are cheaper, also they make less mess so I think that is probably the way this sort of thing will go.

Tsjerk - 25-11-2020 at 06:55

As B(a)P said, this has been done, many times with many different species.

It doesn't work as you describe. Please have a look at the difference between mitosis and meiosis. If you were to replace the DNA in a sperm cell and in an egg cell with that from a skin and a liver cell you would end up with two times a double set on chromosomes (2 times 2N). If that sperm and egg were to combine you would end up with four copies of every chromosome (4N), which is not viable.

What you want is a double set of chromosomes (2N) in a single egg. Forget about the sperm, just take the nucleus of a single skin or liver cell and put that in the egg cell.

ThoughtsIControl - 26-11-2020 at 14:38

Thank you for your feedback. I've reviewed the material I was taught at the beginning of my freshman year and I have a better understanding. Testerone and a cocktail of a few other hormones induce the cell to split into haploid gametes. These stem cells containing 23 chromosomes are then ready to merge with the egg. So I would need to make a stem cell in a petri dish instead of a normal somatic cell. A Y-linked single haploid gamete fertilizes the egg containing an X-linked single haploid gamete surrounded by proper conditions. The gametes meet in the middle creating the boy via cellular fates.

I find myself not picturing the stem cells merging and recombination occurring if you could help me out. The 23 chromosomes merge with each other in the womb. The gene rearrangement is the complex interactions of the DNA chaotically combining creating a single cell. The nucleolus of this cell is supposed to be created with moms and dads chromatids matching up correctly. Am I understanding this correctly? Please make corrections if not. Where does the splicesome come into play? Elaborate if you have time.

Thank you all again

[Edited on 27-11-2020 by ThoughtsIControl]