Obituary: Dolly the cloned sheep is dead; she was euthanased after coming down with a number of chronic ailments. Her premature aging (she was 6) has cast doubt over the ability of cloning to create healthy animals.

Posted by: gjw | http://the-fix.org | Sun Feb 16 05:28:05 2003

I think the sort life expectancy is explained by mitochondrial failure - when an organism is cloned, they've got all-new DNA in the cell nucleus, but cellular organs, like the mitochondria responsible for respiration, are copies of the old ones from the maternal cell - the sheep is 6 years old, but the mitochondria in the sheep are 6 + the age of the mother years old.

Posted by: mark | http://cyberfuddle.com/infinitebabble/ | Sun Feb 16 12:03:58 2003

Interesting theory. The copies are <em>too</em> perfect -- they've cloned the age, as well as the basic cell?

Posted by: Graham | http://grudnuk.com | Mon Feb 17 00:06:51 2003

Nature's own copy-control technology...

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