Animal Biotechnology - Cloning Flashcards

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1
Q

What is cloning?

A

Creation of an exact genetic replica of an organism

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2
Q

Can cloning happen naturally?

A

Yes, through embryo splitting to produce identical twins

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3
Q

What is somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)?

A

A form of cloning that involves removing the nucleus from a somatic cell and putting it into a donor egg to develop into an embryo

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4
Q

Why was Dolly the sheep such a huge achievement?

A

She was the first successfully cloned mammal, which is very difficult

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5
Q

Why does SCNT often have problems with the development of the cloned embryos?

A

Epigenetic reprogramming. Certain genes are silenced and the cloned embryos often have deformities or the pregnancies fail

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6
Q

Can we apply the same techniques used to clone Dolly to other animals?

A

No, the procedure needs to be optimized for each species. Each procedure will only work for one species

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7
Q

Why is it difficult to do SCNT with extinct species?

A

SCNT requires fresh, high quality eggs and somatic cells, as well as an appropriate surrogate. With extinct species we don’t have access to fresh cells

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8
Q

How do we optimize the SCNT procedures for each species?

A

A lot of trial and error for things like hormones and temperature

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9
Q

What are the steps in SCNT?

A
  1. Remove the nucleus from a somatic cell
  2. Transfer that nucleus into a egg cell
  3. Culture in conditions specific to each species to trigger formation of a healthy embryo
  4. Transfer embryo into the surrogate
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10
Q

What is the current status of SCNT?

A

Has now successfully cloned a wide range of organisms, including dogs, pigs, sheep, humans, other primates

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11
Q

What happens when SCNT is done right?

A

The clone is indistinguishable from a normal organism and is perfectly healthy

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12
Q

How can transgenic animals be created? 3 ways

A
  1. Microinjection of DNA into the zygote
  2. Transformation of embryonic stem cells and microinjection into blastocyst
  3. Transformation of somatic cells and SCNT
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13
Q

Why are gene-edited animals different from other transgenic animals?

A

No foreign DNA is introduced, only a targeted change in the genome is made

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14
Q

How can SCNT be applied?

A

Research, pet cloning, conservation cloning, de-extinction, biofactories, xenotransplantation, invasive species control

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15
Q

Where is the vast majority of animal biotechnology used?

A

Research, to create and manipulate animal models and cell lines to study development, human diseases, gene function

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16
Q

Are there any SCNT cloned or gene edited animals approved for human consumption?

A

No

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17
Q

Are there any transgenic animals approved for sale in Canada?

A

One, the AquAdvantage salmon

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18
Q

How is animal biotechnology applied in agriculture?

A

Safety, animal well-being, improved agronomics, disease resistance

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19
Q

What are polled cattle?

A

Cows that have been genetically engineered/gene edited to have no horns, which eliminates the danger to the cows and workers and stops the need for dehorning

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20
Q

How can transgenic animals have improved agronomics?

A

Converting food to muscle mass more efficiently, produce more milk

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21
Q

How has animal biotechnology been used in agriculture to improve disease resistance?

A

Transgenic cows that don’t express the protein that can misfold and cause mad cow disease

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22
Q

Why were the Enviropigs created?

A

Reduce their environmental impact. Pigs are very inefficient at using phosphate in their diets and most of it gets excreted. It is required to add phosphate to their food which costs money and harms the environment

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23
Q

What was the transgene inserted into the Enviropigs genome?

A

A bacterial gene that increases phosphate utilization by breaking it down with phytase. The pigs secreted the enzyme into their saliva

24
Q

What happened to the Enviropigs?

A

Public backlash and low demand caused the project to be shut down. They never received regulatory approval

25
Q

Why were the AquAdvantage salmon created?

A

Make a fish that reaches the size where it is sold sooner. Wild-type Atlantic salmon only grow part of the year, and their growth is regulated by time and not food availability. So half of the year they are eating and producing waste but not growing

26
Q

What is the transgene and trait in the AquAdvantage salmon?

A

The promotor from the growth gene of the arctic pout was used. Arctic pout grow year-round, so the transgenic salmon will grow year-round

27
Q

What are the benefits of the AquAdvantage salmon?

A

They are much more cost effective and have less of an environmental impact

28
Q

What is done with the AquAdvantage salmon to prevent them from escaping into the wild?

A

They are only permitted to be grown in land-locked tanks and are all created to be triploid and sterile

29
Q

When was the first dog cloned?

A

2005, Snuppy. Cloned by Woo Suk Hwang in South Korea

30
Q

What is the purpose of frozen zoos?

A

Preserve the biodiversity that we are losing by collecting living cell cultures, oocytes, sperm, embryos

31
Q

Where the largest frozen zoo in the world currently?

A

San Diego

32
Q

What has been the only attempt to de-extinct an extinct species?

A

The Bucardo in 2009

33
Q

Was the bucardo successfully brought back with SCNT?

A

Technically yes, but most pregnancies failed and the only surviving one died 7 minutes after birth

34
Q

What is the woolly mammoth de-extinction project doing?

A

Editing the Asian elephant genome to create an elephant with mammoth traits

35
Q

What are the challenges with de-extinction?

A

Difficult to do with recently extinct species and even harder with ancient species, extinct species requires synthetic biology to create the traits of the extinct animal in a related extant species and using SCNT on those cells

36
Q

What are the benefits to de-extinction?

A

Novelty to be used in theme parks, environmental benefit for bringing back keystone species, a moral imperative to bring back a species we caused to go extinct

37
Q

What are the downsides to de-extinction?

A

Waste of resources that could go to protecting endangered species, environmental harm, animal rights

38
Q

What are biofactories?

A

Transgenic animals that produce compounds to be used as biopharmaceuticals

39
Q

What do the Attryn goats produce as biofactories?

A

Human antithrombin in their milk, which treats antithrombin deficiency in humans

40
Q

What is xenotransplantation?

A

Using organs from a different species for transplants

41
Q

Why are we wanting to use pigs for xenotransplantation?

A

They have similar physiological and anatomical characteristics to humans

42
Q

Why is using pigs for organs challenging when we have already been using pig tendons and heart valves?

A

Tendons and heart valves are decellularized, so they can’t cause an immune response since they have no cells

43
Q

What are the 2 biggest challenges with xenotransplantation?

A

Immune response and transplant rejection

44
Q

How have transgenic approaches been used to reduce the problems associated with xenotransplantation? 3 ways

A
  1. Removing the pig antigens that cause immune responses
  2. Introducing human genes that express human proteins to create better transplant outcomes
  3. Make the organ less like a pig and more like a human
45
Q

How have transgenic approaches been used for invasive species control?

A

Population control in disease-carrying invasive mosquito species, transgenic approaches make the next generation of mosquitoes sterile

46
Q

Why is the transgenic mosquito population control better over the traditional method of spraying the pond with insecticide?

A

The transgenic approach is very specific and doesn’t affect native mosquito species. It also reduces our insecticide use

47
Q

Why have the use of gene drives been suggested to have continuous population control of mosquitoes?

A

The sterile insect technique involves tons of mosquitoes being released into the environment, and that has to be done for each generation. Gene drives would allow the sterility trait to continue to be spread through the population without having to release tons of mosquitoes each year

48
Q

What is the downside to using gene drives for continuous mosquito population control?

A

Once it is released, we can’t control its spread anymore

49
Q

What is therapeutic cloning?

A

Creation of an embryo to harvest stem cells or for research purposes

50
Q

Is therapeutic cloning done in Canada?

A

No, it is illegal under the Assisted Human Reproduction Act. No human cloning or manipulation of embryos is allowed in Canada

51
Q

What is reproductive cloning?

A

Using SCNT on humans with the intent of creating an embryo to implant

52
Q

What are SCNT-ESCs?

A

Embryonic stem cells created by tricking a somatic cell into thinking it is an embryonic cell

53
Q

Why do we need to consider animal rights when using animal biotechnology?

A

Need to consider the trade offs between animal health and well-being and human health and well-being

54
Q

How are biotechnology animals regulated in Canada?

A

Same way plants are regulated. Regulated based on the novel trait in terms of human, animal, and environmental safety rather than the method used to create it

55
Q

Does our regulatory system work with the new possibilities of animal biotechnology, like gene editing?

A

Yes