Int. J. Dev. Biol. 63: 123 - 130 (2019)

https://doi.org/10.1387/ijdb.180324mc

Vol 63, Issue 3-4-5

Special Issue: Early mammalian development

Somatic cell nuclear transfer: failures, successes and the challenges ahead

Published: 16 April 2019

Marta Czernik^1,2, Debora A. Anzalone¹, Luca Palazzese¹, Mami Oikawa³ and Pasqualino Loi*^,1

¹ Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Teramo, Teramo, Italy, ² Department of Experimental Embryology, Institute of Genetics and Animal Breeding of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Jastrzębiec, Poland and ³Center for Genetic Analysis of Behavior, National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki, Japan

Abstract

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) has a broad spectrum of potential applications, including rescue of endangered species, production of transgenic animals, drug production, and regenerative medicine. Unfortunately, the efficiency of SCNT is still disappointingly low. Many factors affecting cloning procedures have been described in several previous reviews; here we review the most effective improvements in SCNT, with a special emphasis on the effect of mitochondrial defects on SCNT embryo/ foetus development, an issue never touched upon before.

Keywords

somatic cell nuclear transfer, SCNT, nuclear reprogramming, mitochondria