What is the application of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer Technology?

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Production of biolarvicides

Manufacture of biodegradable plastics

Reproductive cloning of animals

Production of organisms free of diseases

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This question was previously asked in

UPSC IAS – 2017

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The correct answer is C) Reproductive cloning of animals. Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) is the technology most famously associated with cloning animals.

– Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) involves taking the nucleus from a somatic cell (any body cell other than sperm or egg) and transferring it into an enucleated egg cell (an egg cell from which the nucleus has been removed).
– This reconstructed egg cell is then stimulated to divide, forming an embryo.
– If this embryo is implanted into the uterus of a surrogate mother and develops to term, it results in the birth of an organism genetically identical to the donor of the somatic cell nucleus. This is reproductive cloning.
– SCNT can also be used for therapeutic cloning, where the embryonic stem cells derived from the resulting embryo are used for research or potential therapy, rather than implanting the embryo.

Dolly the sheep, cloned in 1996, was the first mammal created using SCNT from an adult somatic cell. While SCNT has potential applications in conservation (cloning endangered species), agriculture (cloning livestock), and medicine (therapeutic cloning), its most direct and well-known application is reproductive cloning of animals.

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