Potential for Somatic Nuclear Transfer Technology in Domestic Chickens

Abstract

The development of mammalian somatic nuclear transfer techniques by Wilmut et al. in 1997 provided a new option for conserving animal genetic resources; however, this technique cannot be applied directly to avian species due to the anatomical and physiological differences between avian and mammalian embryos. A basic strategy for producing nuclear transferred avian offspring with somatic nuclear transferred primordial germ cells (snt-PGCs) was described in 2002. Under this scenario, somatic nuclear offspring could be produced through germline chimeras by transferring snt-PGCs into the bloodstream of early chicken embryos. In the present study, a series of experiments have been carried out to produce somatic nuclear transferred chickens.