Genetic rescue of an endangered mammal
by cross-species nuclear transfer
using post-mortem somatic cells
Nature Biotechnology v.19, n.10, Oct01

Pasqualino Loi1, Grazyna Ptak1, 2, Barbara Barboni1, Josef Fulka Jr.3, Pietro Cappai4 & Michael Clinton5

1. Department of Structure, Functions, Animal Pathology and Biotechnology, University of Teramo, Italy.
2. Department of Animal Reproduction, University of Agriculture, Krakow, Poland.
3. Institute of Animal Production, Prague, Czech Republic.
4. Institute of Zootechnics, Sassari, Italy.
5. Department of Gene Expression and Development, Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, United Kingdom.

Correspondence should be addressed to P Loi. e-mail: loi@ifv.vet.unite.it

Since the advent of procedures for cloning animals, conservation biologists have proposed using this technology to preserve endangered mammals. Here we report the successful cloning of a wild endangered animal, Ovis orientalis musimon, using oocytes collected from a closely related, domesticated species, Ovis aries. We injected enucleated sheep oocytes with granulosa cells collected from two female mouflons found dead in the pasture. Blastocyst-stage cloned embryos transferred into sheep foster mothers established two pregnancies, one of which produced an apparently normal mouflon. Our findings support the use of cloning for the expansion of critically endangered populations.