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Although Snuppy, the first cloned dog, passed away in 2015, his genetic legacy continues. According to the National Post, South Korean researchers recently announced in the journal Scientific Reports the birth of three identical puppies, all clones of the renowned Afghan hound.
Many people may recall Dolly, the Scottish sheep who became famous as the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell. After Dolly's cloning in 1996, scientists successfully cloned various animals such as cows, horses, cats, and mice. However, cloning dogs was initially challenging due to their limited breeding cycles and difficulty in extracting eggs, as Time reports.
In the end, scientists employed somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), the same technique used to clone Dolly. In the early 2000s, a South Korean team inserted DNA from an Afghan hound's skin cells into a dog egg cell that had its DNA removed. The resulting egg divided, producing multiple cloned embryos.
In an extensive effort, scientists implanted 1,095 embryos into 123 dogs, a process that ultimately resulted in only three pregnancies, as reported by NPR. Of these pregnancies, Snuppy—named after a combination of "puppy" and the initials of Seoul National University—was the sole survivor.
Snuppy passed away from cancer in April 2015, shortly after turning 10. To honor his successful life, the same South Korean researchers decided to re-clone him using mesenchymal stem cells taken from his belly fat when he was five. This time, they transferred 94 reconstructed embryos into seven dogs. Four clones were born, though one died shortly after birth.
The small Snuppy clones are now over a year old, and researchers believe they don't face the risks of accelerated aging or increased susceptibility to diseases. (Dolly, for instance, passed away at just six years old, and cloned mice have also had shorter lifespans.) Snuppy's somatic cell donor, Tai, lived only two years longer than Snuppy, passing away at age 12, the typical lifespan of an Afghan hound.
Researchers believe that this new generation of Snuppy clones will provide valuable insights into the health and lifespan of cloned animals. In other cloning news, a Texas-based company, ViaGen Pets, is now offering cloning services for people's cherished pets, with a price tag of $50,000 for dogs, according to CBS Pittsburgh.
