In what was considered a step towards using genetic technology to help save many species of endangered animals, China managed to clone its first polar wolf.
The Chinese company “Synogene” recently published a video of the wolf 100 days after its birth on June 10, in a laboratory in the capital, Beijing.
While the deputy general manager of the company, Zhao Jianping, explained that the cloned wolf is a female named the new Maya and carries the genes of the original wolf, but she does not live with wolves, but rather with a dog of the type “beagle” who put it.
The researchers used beagles as a surrogate for not having enough female wolves, and fortunately dogs share enough DNA with wolves for a successful hybrid pregnancy.
live with a dog
The official pointed out that there is a problem facing the cloned lupus, which is represented in social life, as this lupus currently lives with a dog, and as she gets older, it will be difficult for her to integrate with the members of her species of wolves.
(China News Service/Sun Hanlun)
A somatic cell nuclear transfer technique was used from the skin of a ten-month-old arctic wolf named Maya, who lived in a zoo in northern China. The researchers injected the dog’s egg with donor cells and placed it inside her uterus.
nucleic acid
Maya was cloned using DNA collected from a full-grown polar wolf, also called Maya, that died in captivity at Harbin Polarland, a wildlife park in northeastern China.
(China News Service/Sun Hanlun)
The original Maya wolf, who was born in Canada before being shipped to China in 2006, died of old age in early 2021.
Reproduction of endangered species
It is noteworthy that the company “Synogene” announced the cloning of a cat, its first since it entered the world of scientific research in 2019, after it managed to clone dozens of dogs.
(China News Service/Sun Hanlun)
But she now wants to use her expertise to help clone the endangered species for conservation purposes, the Global Times reported.