Once again, South Korean scientists have made cloning headlines. This time around, though, it's not about cloned stem cells -- nope, it's about cloned glow-in-the-dark cats. Sounds ridiculous, maybe, but the scientists claim that what they've done could change medicine.
To be fair, the fact that the kitties glow in the dark under ultraviolet light doesn't really matter (though it is truly bizarre) -- what's interesting is that these researchers, who include biologist Kong Il-keun of Gyeongsang National University, have been able to clone animals that have already been genetically engineered. (Their fluorescent color provides an easy way for the scientists to tell whether the engineered gene has been copied to the clones.)
The cats were cloned after scientists added a gene coding for a fluorescent protein (RFP) to their genomes. According to an article in the Korea Times, the scientists first introduced the RFP gene into the nucleus of a cat's skin cell using a virus; then the nucleus of this cell was transplanted into a de-nucleated egg, which was transferred into the womb of another cat. Using this technique, scientists could, for instance, clone animals who suffer from a specific genetic mutation -- allowing them to create animal disease models that are genetically identical to one another.
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