Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!udel!burdvax!overt@antony
From: overt@antony (Christian Overton)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Cats and Rabbits and cloning mammals
Message-ID: <17454@burdvax.PRC.Unisys.COM>
Date: 2 May 91 16:37:03 GMT
References: <153726@pyramid.pyramid.com>
Sender: news@PRC.Unisys.COM
Reply-To: overt@antony (Christian Overton)
Distribution: na
Organization: Unisys - Paoli Research Center   Paoli, PA
Lines: 26
In-reply-to: lstowell@pyrnova.pyramid.com (Lon Stowell)

In article <153726@pyramid.pyramid.com>, lstowell@pyrnova (Lon Stowell) writes:
>
>   Aren't rabbits parthenogenetic?  Maybe that's what happened.
>   Also buffalo and cattle....
>

There are no parthenogenetic mammals.  Current research in nuclear
transplantation strongly supports a manditory contribution of the male
and female pronuclei for successful development --- that is, while the
male and female genetic contribution are equivalent the pronuclei are
functionally distinct, and one from each sex is required.  Two
hypotheses to explain these results are that during gametogenesis in
males and females 1) the DNA is differentially modified (for example,
by methylation at CGs) or 2) the chromatin is differentially and
stably modified.

BTW, these experiments also demonstrated that it will be difficult, if
not impossible, to clone mammals from somatic cells as was done in
amphibians by Gurdon.

Chris
-- 
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| G. Christian Overton, Ph.D.               || Telephone: (215) 648-2420      |
| Center for Advanced Information Technology|| Internet: overt@prc.unisys.com |
| Unisys                                    || FAX: (215) 648-2288            |