Chapter 10 - Donor Cell Type and Cloning Efficiency in Mammals

Abstract

After the first successful nuclear transfer in mammals in 1983 with pronuclear exchanges, this technique was applied to produce cloned animals using unfertilized oocytes. In 1997 first somatic cell cloning was succeeded in sheep, and after that in more than 20 species, somatic cell nuclear transfer has been succeeded. But the successful rate to produce healthy cloned animals is still low. In this chapter, whether donor cell types affect on the cloning efficiency is discussed, with two categories such as germ line cell types and somatic cell types as donor.