Cloning has been a part of the scientific world for many years, and recently it has been used in the pet industry. Cloning a pet has been a controversial topic among pet owners, as it is seen by some as unethical and unnatural. That being said, pet owners have a lot of questions about the process of cloning a pet and the results that come with it.
One of the most important questions is regarding the lifespan of a cloned pet. How long do cloned dogs live? This is a question that has been asked over and over again by pet owners and potential pet owners alike. In order to answer this question and provide more insight into the process of cloning, this blog post will discuss the lifespan of cloned dogs and other factors that can influence their longevity.
The somatic cells from the cloned body are injected into the enucleated oocytes during a pet cloning procedure. The cells are also reprogrammed during the creation of the recreated embryo. In this manner, the cells’ telomeres are replenished to their initial length. Newly cloned animals are also at the “0-year-old” state!.
It’s a common misconception that animal cloning technology results in an exact replication of genes. Additionally, it can flawlessly replicate telomeres that have shrunk to a specific length. For instance, a 10-year-old kitten’s somatic cell’s telomere length has been shortened by 10 years in order to clone it. The life span is only a few years, and it is certain to be premature because the telomere length has also been reduced by 10 years, which is equivalent to the age of 10 at birth.
Imagine a couple who conceives a child at the age of 27, at which point both the sperm and the oocyte are “27 years old.” The telomeres are reprogrammed to their original level and back to the “0-year-old” during the process of the fertilized egg developing into the embryo, which is why the child is born with “0 years old” telomeres!
However, the Japanese cloned twins “Noto” and “Gaho” were born when Dolly was 2 years old. The 19-year-old “Noto” passed away in May 2018, but “Gaho” is still alive today. The twins’ lifespan was normal because the cattle had a natural lifespan of around 20 years.
Oocyte collection and somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)
Small modifications were made to the initial dog cloning study8 for the collection of in vivo matured oocytes and SCNT. Serum progesterone levels were used to determine a female dog’s ovulation, and a midline laparotomy was carried out under general anesthesia roughly 72 hours after the expected time of ovulation. A flushing needle was used to exteriorize an ovary, and afterward, 2-0 nylon (Blue Nylon; Ailee, Busan, Korea) was used to tie the needle into place. An intravenous catheter was placed into the caudal part of the oviduct, and tissue culture medium-199 (TCM-199; Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA, USA) supplemented with 10 mM HEPES, 2 mM NaHCO3, 5 mg/mL of BSA (Invitrogen), and 1% (v/v) penicillin-streptomycin was flushed through the oviduct to collect ovulated oocyte Pipetting was used to repeatedly remove cumulus cells before mature oocytes were chosen and used for SCNT. Under an inverted microscope with epifluorescence, the denuded oocytes were enucleated using micromanipulators (Nikon Narishige, Tokyo, Japan). An enucleated oocyte’s perivitelline space received an injection from an ASC with homogenous cytoplasm. Using an Electro-Cell Fusion device (NEPA GENE, Chiba, Japan), the oocyte-cell couplets were fused with two pulses of direct current of 72 V for 15 seconds each. The fused couplets were then activated by calcium ionophore and 6-demethylaminopurine.
The reconstructed embryos were immediately implanted surgically into the recipient dog’s oviduct after activation8. Cloned embryos were placed in the ampullary region of the left oviduct of a recipient after exteriorizing it with a laparotomy and using a 3 5 Fr. Tom Catheter (Sherwood, St. Louis, MO) was inserted through the oviduct’s infundibulum. In this study, only naturally 1-day-ahead synchronous or asynchronous recipients22 were employed. 26 days after embryo transfer, an ultrasound was used to confirm pregnancy using a SONOACE 9900 (Medison, Seoul, Korea) ultrasound scanner with 7 0 MHz linear-array probe. 45 days after the embryo transfer, the number of fetuses was confirmed, and the pregnancy was monitored as before until parturition23.
To verify genetic identity, genomic DNA was taken from the clone’s nuclear donor fibroblasts, four recently recloned dogs, oocyte donors, and surrogate recipients. Seven markers were chosen, all of which have been shown to be effective in cloned dog parentage analysis24: PEZ1, PEZ3, PEZ6, PEZ8, FH2010, FH2054, and FH2079. The isolated genomic DNA samples were used to examine the seven microsatellites, which were dissolved in 50 l of TE buffer. Using fluorescently labeled (FAM, HEX, and NED) locus-specific primers, the microsatellites were amplified by polymerase chain reaction, and amplicon length analysis was carried out using an automated DNA sequencer (ABI 373; Applied Biosystems, Foster City, CA) and specialized software (GeneScan and Genotyper; Applied Biosystems).
This study was funded by the BK21 Plus program, Nature Cell, Research Institute for Veterinary Science, NRF (#2014R1A1A2059928), RDA (#PJ010928032017), Korea IPET (#316002-05-1-SB010), and Nature Cell.
M. J. K. , H. J. O. , G. A. K. , E. M. N. S. , Y. B. C. , S. H. L. and B. C. L. performed experiments. M. J. K. , H. J. O. , G. A. K. , S. M. P. , C. J. K. and B. C. L. wrote the manuscript.
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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Kim, M. J. , Oh, H. J. , Kim, G. A. et al. Birth of clones of the world’s first cloned dog. Sci Rep 7, 15235 (2017). https://doi. org/10. 1038/s41598-017-15328-2.
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FAQ
Does cloning shorten lifespan?
The lifespan of cloned animals is normal, to put it succinctly. Let us explain why genetically cloned animals have a normal lifespan. It’s a common misconception that animal cloning technology results in an exact replication of genes.
Do cloned dogs have health problems?
Cloned dogs share the same genetic makeup as the original dogs. No changes to your dog’s genes are made during dog cloning. Cloned dogs are no more prone to health issues than other dogs are, and they lead full, healthy, and happy lives.
Do cloned dogs age faster?
The first adult animal clone ever created, Dolly the sheep, passed away in middle age.
What is the success rate of cloning a dog?
Due to the low success rate of dog cloning, multiple surgeries will probably be required to harvest egg cells and implant a cloned embryo.