Jun 21 2004
Sperm Optional
‘Virgin birth’ mammal rewrites rules of biology:
A mammal that is the daughter of two female parents has been created for the first time.
Until now such a feat had been considered biologically impossible. But the mouse, called Kaguya, was born without the involvement of any sperm or male cell - only female eggs were needed.
Until now such a feat had been considered biologically impossible. But the mouse, called Kaguya, was born without the involvement of any sperm or male cell - only female eggs were needed.
How’d they do it?
This was far from simple. Perhaps the most important of the many steps required was the creation of eggs that produced a protein called IGF-2. This is crucial to embryo growth but is normally only produced by sperm-derived DNA. The researchers achieved the trick by using genetically altered mice to provide the donated eggs.
