Cloning of the short-tailed Gyeongju Donggyeong dog via SCNT: conserving phenotypic inheritance

Abstract

Somatic cell nuclear transfer is a useful tool to maintain genetic information of animals. The Gyeongju Donggyeong dog is a breed registered as natural monument in Korea. The unique feature of the Donggyeong dog is its tail, as the Donggyeong dog can be classified as either short tailed or tailless. The aim of this study was to preserve the Donggyeong dog's unique feature by cloning. Fibroblasts were obtained from a short-tailed Donggyeong dog. In vivo matured oocytes were enucleated, microinjected with a donor cell and fused electrically. Reconstructed embryos were transferred to six recipient dogs. One surrogate became pregnant, and one short-tailed Donggyeong dog was delivered. This study demonstrated that the phenotype of the Donggyeong dog could be conserved by somatic cell nuclear transfer.

Fig. 1.

Pictures of the cell donor and cloned Donggyeong dogs. A) cell donor dog at three months old. B) cloned dog at 1 day after birth. C) tail length of cell donor dog. D) tail length of cloned dog.

Fig. 2.

Comparison of the number of coccygeal vertebral bodies of the cloned Donggyeong dog (20 days after birth) and a donor Donggyeong dog (six months old) using digital radiographic views. A) a dorsal radiographic view of a portion of the caudal vertebral column of a cell donor dog is shown to illustrate measurements obtained for the sacrum (white bracket) through to the last coccygeal vertebra. B) dorsal radiographic view of the cloned dog. The coccygeal vertebral number was measured as the number from the dorsal surface of the sacrum. The cell donor dog had six coccygeal vertebral bodies, whereas the cloned dog had seven coccygeal vertebral bodies.