Post by Jinsei on Mar 28, 2007 12:10:26 GMT -5
South Korean scientists, once led by disgraced stem cell researcher Hwang Woo-suk, claim they have created the world's first cloned wolves, produced to help an endangered species.
It took the team a while to publish its findings likely because of extra scrutiny due to being implicated in fraud, a member said.
"Normally, scientific periodicals would not ask for mitochondrial DNA verification but we needed to produce it due to previous problems," said Lee Byung-chun, a professor who heads the research team.
Lee said the quarterly periodical "Cloning and Stem Cells" will publish the team's findings its upcoming issue.
Lee said cloning Korean wolf could help the species survive. Wolves have not been spotted in the wild in South Korea for about 20 years, Lee said, and the only ones that are known to exist in the South are in a small pack of about 10 at a nature park in Seoul.
Snuppy was dubbed one of the most amazing inventions of 2005 by Time magazine. Independent testing has concluded the dog was an actual clone.
Hwang and other members have since left their posts at the university after his team fabricated data in two papers on human embryonic stem cells that have since been debunked.
Hwang is facing trial on fraud, embezzlement and violating the country's bioethics laws.
In December, the team said it had cloned three more Afghan hounds and improved the efficiency of its cloning methods.
For the wolf cloning, it transferred 251 reconstructed embryos to 12 surrogate mothers to produce two living clones.
Dogs are considered among the most difficult mammals to clone because of their reproductive cycle.