In this section:
Cloning
Cloning by nuclear transfer facilitates production of identical copies of animals by using their somatic cells as sources of donor nuclei, and either in vivo or in vitro produced ova as sources of recipient oocytes. The technology is very promising, however low efficiencies in producing cloned embryos and offspring, associated with high incidence of spontaneous abortions and abnormalities in fetal development and born offspring have so far limited its adoption in livestock breeding. This project aims to improve efficiencies of the cloning technology by identification of optimal sources of donor and recipients cells and treatments applied to them. The project is focussing both on in vitro developmental data as well as on long term consequences of the applied treatments to both foetal development and the characteristics of subsequent offspring.
