Taken from Ap news..........

Scientists in South Korea Clone a Dog


(AP) - Scientists for the first time have cloned a dog. But don't count on a better world populated by identical and resourceful Lassies just yet.

That's because the dog duplicated by South Korea's cloning pioneer, Hwang Woo-suk, is an Afghan hound, a resplendent supermodel in a world of mutts, but ranked by dog trainers as the least companionable and most indifferent among the hundreds of canine breeds.

The experiment extends the remarkable string of laboratory successes by Hwang, but also reignites a fierce ethical and scientific debate about the rapidly advancing technology.

Last year, Hwang's team created the world's first cloned human embryos. In May, they created the first embryonic stem cells that genetically match injured or sick patients.

Researchers nicknamed their cloned pal Snuppy, which is shorthand for "Seoul National University puppy." One of the dog's co-creators, Gerald Schatten of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, describes their creation, now 14 weeks old, as "a frisky, healthy, normal, rambunctious puppy."

Researchers congratulated the Korean team on improving techniques that might someday be medically useful. Others, including the cloner of Dolly the sheep, renewed their demand for a worldwide ban on human reproductive cloning.

"Successful cloning of an increasing number of species confirms the general impression that it would be possible to clone any mammalian species, including humans," said Ian Wilmut, a reproductive biologist at the University of Edinburgh, who produced Dolly nearly a decade ago.

Since then, researchers have cloned cats, goats, cows, mice, pigs, rabbits, horses, deer, mules and gaur, a large wild ox of Southeast Asia. Uncertainties about the health and life span of cloned animals persist; Dolly died prematurely in 2003 after developing cancer and arthritis.

"The ability to use the underlying technology in developing research models and eventually therapies is incredibly promising," said Robert Schenken, president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. "However, the paper also points out that in dogs as in most species, cloning for reproductive purposes is unsafe."

The experiment's outcome only seems to buoy the commercial pet-cloning industry, which has charged up to $50,000 per animal. The first cloned-to-order pet sold in the United States was a 9-week-old kitten produced by the biotech firm, Genetic Savings & Clone Inc. of Sausalito, Calif.

Company officials said they expect to commercially clone a dog within a year using eggs collected from spaying procedures at veterinary clinics. The South Korean researchers can surgically remove eggs from research animals with fewer regulations than in the United States.

"This justifies our investment in the field," said spokesman Ben Carlson. "We've long suspected that if anyone beat us to this milestone, it would be Dr. Hwang's team - due partly to their scientific prowess, and partly to the greater availability of canine surrogates and ova in South Korea."

But the dog cloning team tried to distance its work from commercial cloning. "This is to advance stem cell science and medicine, not to make dogs by this unnatural method," Schatten said.

On scientific terms, the experiment's success was mixed. More than 1,000 cloned embryos were implanted into surrogate mothers and just three pregnancies resulted. That's a cloning efficiency rate lower than experiments with cloned cats and horses. Details appear in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

Like Dolly and other predecessors, Snuppy was created using a method called somatic cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT.

Scientists transfer genetic material from the nucleus of a donor adult cell to an egg whose nucleus - with its genetic material - has been removed. The reconstructed egg holding the DNA from the donor cell is treated with chemicals or electric current to stimulate cell division.

Once the cloned embryo reaches a suitable stage, it is transferred to the uterus of a surrogate where it continues to develop until birth.

Dog eggs are problematic because they are released from the ovary earlier than in other mammals. This time, the researchers waited and collected more mature unfertilized eggs from the donors' fallopian tubes.

They used DNA from skin cells taken from the ear of a 3-year-old male Afghan hound to replace the nucleus of the eggs. Of the three pregnancies that resulted, there was one miscarried fetus and one puppy that died of pneumonia 22 days after birth.

That left Snuppy as the sole survivor. He was delivered by Caesarean section from his surrogate mother, a yellow Labrador retriever.

Researchers determined that both of the puppies that initially survived were genetically identical to the donor dog.

Schatten said the Afghan hound's genetic profile is relatively pure and easy to distinguish compared to dogs with more muddled backgrounds. But dog experts said the researchers' choice of breed choice was disquieting.

"The Afghan hound is not a particularly intelligent dog, but it is beautiful," said psychologist Stanley Coren, author of the best-selling manual "The Intelligence of Dogs." He ranked the Afghan hound last among 119 breeds in temperament and trainability.

"Many people who opt for the cloning technique are more interested in fashionable looks," he said. "Whenever we breed dogs for looks and ignore behavior, we have suffered."

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I'm not sure how I feel about cloning...there are merits and pitfalls I'm sure...but I dont have a stand on it yet. I, of course, would never agree with cloning human or animal for the sole purpose of harvesting organs/cells, but I dont see the harm as long as no human or animal is harmed.

i dont really like.. just because i heard that they can carry like something deadly.. and they dont even live that long anyways. i dunno maybe its because its tooooo into the future and i dont like that.. like we were soppose to find that out when we had cars that fly! LOL.. but i dont like it. i just think its a stupid reason to look smart for the people who figure it out, and becoem like a "hero"

I've forgotten most of the ins and outs of cloning from my biology lessons, but I'll have a bash... LOL
I agree with cloning in medical cases. i.e. stem cell production for people who are paralysed, but not in these "Oh my dog died and I want one exactly the same!" cases.
I know that alot of people don't agree with cloning because they consider any cell cluster developing (even a zygote) into a human to be a baby. I find it difficult myself to think of the enormity of the whole thing.
I should really sit on the fence with this argument, but cloning research has helped many people that I find it difficult to argue against it. :???: Also recombinant DNA is a type of cloning and I inject insulin made from recombinant DNA every 4 hours!

I'm not 100% sure where I stand on the issue...in some ways, cloning is like playing God and it's sort of creepy to me.

I wonder if they'll ever successfully clone humans? Could you imagine being a clone? I would be freaked. :blink:

there are movies about that. lol

lol yeah I saw one in school...I forget what it was called though. :huh:

I saw The Island last week......very good thriller, excellent action. :yes:

This totally bothers me.
I do LOVE Afgahan hounds though :wub:

Cinn I believe Dolly, the sheep, had a very short lifespan...but I dont know of any other examples of cloned animals that have had a short life span due to cloning. I havent actually researched it though.

I think the benefits of cloning certain cells should be kept in mind. I dont necessarily agree with cloning a human or animal.

i just remember about that sheep dying.. so i'd figure is that one was cloned they might all be like that also.. ::shrugs:: i dunno though, lol

I'm like a lot of you...I don't have a definite opinion. I don't think I'd be against a lot of cases cases of stem cell research, but I'm a lot more iffy about cloning entire animals.

You're right Lanna; cloned animals, at least at this point, ALWAYS have a shorter life span than the original animal. This is because of genetic sequences called Telomeres, which become shorter and shorter as the cell replicates. The shorter the telomeres, the 'older' the cell. When you clone an existing cell, you're getting a new cell with shortened telomeres (because the cell it was cloned from is most likely 'older')...so the 'new' cell is essentially starting out old.

Maybe someone with a better genetics background can explain it better...but that's how I remember it.

The only scenario I wouldn't have a problem with cloning would be in cases of extinct animals in which humans killed off (obviously only those we are/were capable of getting DNA from). Animals that died off on their own are obviously are gone for one reason or another.. But definantly I don't think they should be messing with it otherwise. ESPECIALLY on humans- aren't there enough people in the world already??

That would be awesome nicole! bringing back extinct animals!

LOL...I dont know how awesome it would be to bring back some types of extinct animals. I wouldnt want to run into a meat eating dinosaur in a dark alley. :blink:

Nienna..Cinn was the one who metioned the shorter life spans...I wasnt sure...but thanks for clarifying. What you said made sense to me.

OOO but what abotu a Saber Tooth TIger?! :D LOL jk.. yeah some would be too scare to have! it'd be nice to have a Wooly Mammoth back though.. they were sooo cute! LOL

Alot of animals become extinct due to habitat loss because of humans chopping down trees and generally ravaging the landscape.
Cloning would be good to recreate some of the animals we have made extinct, but we would also have to recreat thier habitats.
There are alot of animals on the red data list (these are animals on the verge of extinction) for example all of the lemur species of Madagascar are on the list, but people have chopped all the forest down and so there would be no where for them to go, if we could infact clone more of them.

Cloning people...No!!! Very bad idea.