First somatic cell cloned Shanbei white cashmere goat has been successfully born

Recently the first somatic cell cloned Shanbei white cashmere goat has been successfully born in the Laboratory of Life Science and Research Center of Yulin College, the little ram is called "Liangliang", its English name is "Niche".

The project leader, as well as Life Science and Research Center of Yulin School Dr. Qu Lei said, the project has been supported by national funds for major projects, and has been shared by the Northwest A & F University and Yulin School.

The research group selected an adult cashmere goat in Northern as ram that produces large quantity and excellent velvet cashmere, the group collected a small amount of ear skin fibroblast cells as donor cells, then built cloned embryo through application of somatic cell nuclear transfer technology in the laboratory of Life Science and Research Center of Yulin School. Researchers implanted a mature somatic cell cloned embryo into surrogate ewe’s womb on February 3 this year, after 155 days of gestation, the cloned sheep was successful born.

With the successful cloning of "Niche", the research group continues to build goat-cloned embryos and has trans ferred to seven surrogate ewes. The Task Force plans to transfer cloned embryos to 150 surrogate ewes this year, in order to clone cashmere goats with special performance of production genes. They will make the white cashmere goats with target genes mate naturally, their natural mating is expected to reproduce quality white cashmere goats with target genes in Shanbei.