In the long term, what will happen to cloned mammals and their descendants?
The first question is the long-term viability, and secondly, their reproductive behavior. Because cloning is a recent technique, scientists havent yet had the time to answer these questions. One of the concerns today is whether clones will, in some way, keep a trace in their genetic makeup of the age of the adult cell from which the nucleus was removed to make them. If so, we might see in them pathologies which are generally associated with adulthood, or even old age. The only cloned animals for which we have had sufficient time to know whether the lifespan of clones can be normal are mice whose lifespan is about two or three years. With this species, it has been shown that clones (just some of them) can have a completely normal lifespan: when autopsied, they show a perfectly normal physiological table*. We dont yet have information on the lifespan or the state of health late in life of cloned rabbits or cows. For these, we will have to wait at least another ten years. To date, we have
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- In the long term, what will happen to cloned mammals and their descendants?
