7-14 世界上第一对克隆雌性狗近日在韩国诞生（附图）

日期：2006-07-14　　访问次数：3455

Assistants of Korean cloning scientist Hwang Woo-suk continue to make breakthroughs without their disgraced leader -- they have created a pair of female dog clones named "Bona" and "Peace."

The team at Seoul National University, headed by Prof. Kim Dae-yong, said on Thursday (July 13) that they plan to mate them with the world's first canine clone, “Snuppy,” possibly late next year.

"Bona was born on 18 June and Peace first saw the light of day on July 10, both through Caesarean operations. Another female dog clone is due this weekend," Kim said.

"We also substantially increased the efficiency of cloning this time because we established three pregnancies using 12 surrogate dog mothers," he added.

"The test on Bona was conducted to confirm if it was a clone while that on Peace has yet to be carried out since it is too young and we are writing an article on them," Kim said.

"The three were all duplicated from cells from an Afghan Hound just like Snuppy as we wanted to mate them with Snuppy to obtain their offspring," he continued.

Kim predicted efforts to make a puppy from two clones would start late next year. The experiments are aimed at gathering genetic information on cloned dogs.

"Dogs have lived with human beings for so long that they have many common diseases. So it would be very helpful to study a variety of human illnesses if we can make a disease model with the dog clone," Kim said.

The research team includes Prof. Lee Byeong-chun at the Seoul-based university, the right-hand man of Hwang, and Prof. Kim Min-kyu who played a pivotal role in making Snuppy.