Dolly, the sheep that stands as an icon for cloning
On July 5, 1996, Dolly the sheep was born. The existence of Dolly – the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell – wasn’t revealed to the world until February 22 the following year. Thirty years on after Dolly’s birth, A.S.Ganesh tells you some secrets about her and the debates that centred around her…
Dolly the sheep is an iconic symbol of cloning, often recognized as the first mammal cloned from an adult cell. This groundbreaking achievement was made by a team at the Roslin Institute in Scotland, led by Ian Wilmut. The process involved extracting the nucleus from a cell taken from an adult Finn Dorset sheep's udder and implanting it into an empty egg cell from a Scottish Blackface sheep.
After careful development in a test tube and transfer to a surrogate mother, Dolly was born on July 5, 1996. Despite being born to a Scottish Blackface sheep, Dolly's white coat and face clearly identified her as a Finn Dorset clone. The team faced significant challenges in their work, including maintaining secrecy due to publication requirements.
Dolly's unique position in scientific history was marked by her ability to be derived from an adult cell, confirming that differentiation of that cell did not involve irreversible genetic modification required for development to term.
Written by urgent.news from The Hindu - Sci-Tech's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
