title: Recent progress in bovine somatic cell nuclear transfer.
abstract: Bovine somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) embryos can develop to the blastocyst stage at a rate similar to that of embryos produced by in vitro fertilization. However, the full-term developmental rate of SCNT embryos is very low, owing to the high embryonic and fetal losses after embryo transfer. In addition, increased birth weight and postnatal mortality are observed at high rates in cloned calves. The low efficiency of SCNT is probably attributed to incomplete reprogramming of the donor nucleus and most of the developmental problems of clones are thought to be caused by epigenetic defects. Applications of SCNT will depend on improvement in the efficiency of production of healthy cloned calves. In this review, we discuss problems and recent progress in bovine SCNT.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science, National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, Tsukuba, Japan. akagi@affrc.go.jp
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Akagi
authors.forename: Masaya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Geshi
authors.forename: Takashi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001724:Birth Weight; D002417:Cattle / Q000502:physiology*; D002999:Clone Cells; D019175:DNA Methylation / Q000187:drug effects; D004526:Efficiency; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D056572:Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology; D008297:Male; D053652:Nuclear Transfer Techniques / Q000639:trends*; D009865:Oocytes / Q000502:physiology; D014019:Tissue Donors
chemical_list: D056572:Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors