Medically Reviewed by Michael W. Smith, MD on February 14, 2002 From the WebMD Archives
Feb. 14, 2002 — Cloning researchers proudly announce the birth of a bouncing baby … kitten. Now 2 months old, the cuddly ball of fur named Cc: — as in carbon copy — is the first of her kind. And so far, she appears healthy, energetic, and perfectly normal.
Mark Westhusin and colleagues at Texas A&M University created the kitten by removing genetic material from a normal cat’s egg, replacing it with DNA from a mature body cell of a donor calico (white fur with gray and brown patches), then implanting the egg into a tabby (brown fur with darker stripes) surrogate.
After 66 days of development in the surrogate mom cat, Cc: was delivered by cesarean section.
The kitten is a calico, and genetic testing confirmed that she indeed is a clone. There are differences between her fur and that of her DNA donor, but that’s to be expected because fur patterns depend not only on genetics, but also on conditions in the womb.
The report, along with photos of Cc: the kitten and her donor and surrogate moms, appears in the February 21 issue of Nature.
The results are exciting, but they also illustrate just how experimental and rudimentary the cloning process still is. Of 87 cloned embryos implanted into seven surrogate mother cats, Cc: alone survived. Still, write the researchers, “This is comparable to the success rates obtained for other cloned species” including sheep, mice, cows, goats, and pigs.
Who knows? As the process becomes better refined, maybe that dream of cloning your favorite pet will become a reality. For now, cloning research continues to move forward, as scientists slowly unlock the secrets of molecular biology.
