A New, Dynamic Era for Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer?
Cloning animals by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) has remained an uncontrollable process for many years. High rates of embryonic losses, stillbirths, and postnatal mortality have been typical outcomes. These developmental problems arise from abnormal genomic reprogramming: the capacity of the oocyte to reset the differentiated memory of a somatic cell. However, effective reprogramming strategies are now available. These target the whole genome or single domains such as the Xist gene, and their effectiveness has been validated with the ability of experimental animals to develop to term. Thus, SCNT has become a controllable process that can be used to 'rescue' endangered species, and for biomedical research such as therapeutic cloning and the isolation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs).
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Teramo, Campus Sant'Agostino, Via Balzarini 1, 64100 Teramo, Italy. Electronic address: ploi@unite.it.
Pasqualino
P
Loi
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Teramo, Campus Sant'Agostino, Via Balzarini 1, 64100 Teramo, Italy.
Domenico
D
Iuso
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Teramo, Campus Sant'Agostino, Via Balzarini 1, 64100 Teramo, Italy.
Marta
M
Czernik
RIKEN BioResource Center, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0074, Japan.
Atsuo
A
Ogura
D000818:Animals; D019976:Cloning, Organism; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D053652:Nuclear Transfer Techniques; D062085:RNA, Long Noncoding / Q000235:genetics; D012756:Sheep
D062085:RNA, Long Noncoding; C077885:XIST non-coding RNA
nuclear reprogramming strategies; somatic cell nuclear transfer