On march 26,2012 history was made in china.Scientists at BGI have produced the world's first transgenic sheep through handmade cloning. This sheep known as 'Peng Peng' is healthy and developing normally. This breakthrough is important because handmade cloning is a very new process that uses simplified procedures along with less equipment. This drives the price of cloning down which can lead many different things.
Transgenic cloning can lead to improved meat quality by increasing the unsaturated fatty acid content. This was done with Peng Peng by successfully transfering a gene that would code for unsaturated fatty acids. What this can further mean is that drinking milk or eating meat will allow people to absorb unsaturated fatty acids.
Handmade cloning has been around since 2001, where species like cattle,pig,goat and water buffalo have been produced. The transgenic part is new and is expected to improve on many aspects of human health.
KyleP:
ReplyDeleteI found this article to be interesting but I had numerous questions, most specifically, what is the difference between traditional cloning [the one done on Dolly] and transgenic cloning?
Thank you very much.
Was this sheep raised for "healthy" dairy. Hopefully the meat and milk these animals produce will be tested before the animals are put into breeding. I am intrested to know if these alterations make the animal less healthy.
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