SOMATIC CELL NUCLEAR TRANSFER: HISTORY, FUTURE AND POTENTIAL APPLICATION IN THE BUBALINE SPECIES

M. SANSINENA

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Congreso; 9th World Buffalo Congress; 2010

Buffalos, an important domestic species mostly found in tropical and subtropical regions, are a valuable source of meat, milk, hide and work power. The application of cloning technology could provide a tool in the preservation of selected buffalo genetic, and potentially in the production of transgenic animals with improved milk or meat characteristics, development of buffalo genotypes with disease resistance or even produce human pharmaceuticals in buffalo milk. Although there was some controversy over the claim of the world’s first cloned buffalo, the first scientific report was produced by Shi et al. in 2007. Researchers at the Animal Reproduction Institute of the Guangxi University of China reported the world first live births of water buffaloes. In their study, cell cycle synchronization of buffalo fetal fibroblasts and granulosa cells using aphidicholine resulted in forty-two blastocysts transferred into 21 synchronized swamp buffalo recipients. These transfers resulted in 4 recipients confirmed pregnant, one aborted on day 300 of gestation and the remaining recipients delivered three cloned calves after 338-349 days of gestation. These embryos were produced by the traditional, micromanipulator-based nuclear transfer protocol. In a later report (Shah et al., 2008), researchers at the Embryo Biotechnology Laboratory, Animal Biotechnology Center of the National Dairy Research Institute of India used the hand made cloning approach (zona-free, without micromanipulators) to produce blastocysts from ear-derived adult fibroblasts. This study reported an impressive 40% blastocyst production for nuclear transfer and 70% for parthenogenic activation when using RVCL embryo culture medium (Research Vitro Cleave medium, Cook®, Australia) and well of well (WoW) culture system. In 2009, Shah et al. also reported establishment of cloned water buffalo pregnancies using the hand made cloning approach. Although no scientific report has been made, the same group made a press release in 2009 (Science News) claiming the birth of India’s first cloned Murrah buffalo calves.