Mouse Cloning with Mimi

Today Mr. Ludwig sent us a link on Edmodo about cloning. I'm not gonna lie I was kind of hesitant to do it because I thought it would be boring. It was actually a lot of fun! I'm going to run you through the process that I went through to clone the mouse Mimi.

Mimi is a brown female mouse. Our egg cell doner is a black mouse named Megdo. Our surrogate mother, that the Mimi clone will grow in, is a white mouse named Momi.
The other tools we need to clone Mimi are:
          -Microscope
          -Petri dishes
          -Sharp Pipette
          -Blunt Pipette
          -Chemical that will stimulate cell division

Here we go with the cloning!


Step 1: Isolate the doner cells from Mimi and Megdo
            We took a somatic cell from Mimi and an egg cell from Megdo and placed them in petri dishes. (FUN FACT: Mimi's somatic cell is a cumulus cell. Cumulus cells can be found in the layer that surround and nourish the egg!)

Step 2: Remove the nucleus from the egg cell.
            We put the petri dish with the egg cell in it under the microscope. Using a blunt pipette we held the cell in place. (the blunt pipette keeps it from moving) Then we sucked the nucleas out of the cell using a sharp pipette. (FUN FACT: When you remove the nucleas from an egg cell it is called enucleation.)

Step 3: Transfer the somatic cell nucleus into the enucleated cell.
            We moved the enucleated egg cell to a "Nuclear Transfer Dish." Then we moved the somatic cell into the same dish. After putting the "Nuclear Transfer Dish" under the microscope we used the sharp pipette to take the nucleus out of the somatic cell and into the enucleated egg cell.

Now the new DNA and the egg cell need time to get used to each other.  The DNA needs time so it believes that it is a DNA in an egg cell.

Step 4: Stimulate Cell Division
           The next we thing we did was start mitosis in the petri dish.  We added a drop of liquid chemical that copies the things when an egg cell is fertilized by a sperm cell. Then we had to wait for the cell to divide in the dish. It created a ball of 16 cells in the petri dish.

Step 5: Implant the Embryo
           Next we placed the embryo inside Momi. (Momi is the surrogate mother)The embryo continues to gain cell number in the womb. The cells divide into various tissue types.

Step 6: Deliver the Baby
            Finally, we delivered the baby clone from Momi! It was a brown mouse that looked just like Mimi.

Here is where you can go to clone Mimi! http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/tech/cloning/clickandclone/


FUN FACT: In 1998 scientists actually completed this procedure! The scientists learned that the time it took for the DNA to get used to the egg cell was very crucial. Without that time the embryo could not fully develop.


I decided to do some more research on cloning:
The article I looked at was http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/tech/cloning/whatiscloning/

When cloning happens it is creating an organism that has an exact genetic copy of another organism. Every strand of DNA in the two organisms is exactly the same. (FUN FACT: Identical twins are considered clones created naturally)

There are two ways to clone:
            Artificial Embryo Twining- In this cloning, technology copies the process of creating twins. When twins are made the zygote divides into a two-celled embryo. The cells continue dividing on their own and then make two individuals in the mom. They are identical because they came from the zygote. This is Artificial Embryo Twining, it's just in a petri dish. An early embryo is manually separated into individual cells. This cell allows each cell to develop on its own. Then they get put in the surrogate mother. They are identical because each cell came from the same zygote.


          Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer- (FUN FACT: This was the method that Dolly the Sheep was cloned with!) While cloning Dolly the sheep the scientists isolated a somatic cell from an adult female sheep. Then they transfered the nucleas from the somatic cell to an egg cell. (The nucleas had been removed from the egg cell.) After the scientists messed with it some it started to behave like a zygote. After developing to an embryo it was placed in the surrogate mother.





Well this blog took me a long time to complete! Well here it is. The final thing I learned is cloning is very very very complicated!