WikiJournal Preprints/A potential method to create a 'perfect' clone of a female organism using somatic cell nuclear transfer

= A potential method to create a 'perfect' clone of a female organism using somatic cell nuclear transfer =

Author information
Author: Charles Ewan Milner

Author email address: charles.milner@outlook.com

Author ORCID iD link: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-5580-1345

Abstract
Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a method which can be used to clone an organism by removing the original nucleus of an egg cell and fusing a nucleus of a somatic cell with that egg cell to create an organism whose nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is the same as of the donor of the nucleus of the somatic cell. However, the DNA of the mitochondria is not copied in this approach, meaning that the clone would not be considered a ‘perfect’ one. Fortunately, there is a potential method to solve this issue when a female organism is cloned.

Main Paper
Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) can be used to artificially clone an organism for reproductive cloning by replacing the nucleus of an egg cell with the nucleus of a donor’s somatic cell and charging it with electricity so that the nucleus of the somatic cell fuses with the egg cell. This would start the development of an organism with the nuclear deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) of the donor of the nucleus of the somatic cell. The issue with this method of reproductive cloning is that while the nuclear DNA of the donor is copied in the cloned organism, the DNA of the mitochondria in the cytoplasm of a cell is not copied from that donor. The DNA of the mitochondria in the clone holds the DNA of the mitochondria of the egg cell. This means that the clone would not be ‘perfect’ and this may have important implications for cross-species nuclear transfer in which nuclear-mitochondrial incompatibilities may lead to death. However, there may be a method to avoid this issue when cloning a female organism. A female could have the nucleus of their somatic cell fused with their own egg cell with its nucleus taken out. This way, the donor of the nucleus of the somatic cell could have their mitochondrial DNA from their egg cell used as well and the organism which would develop from this process would have the same nuclear DNA and mitochondrial DNA as the female organism it would be cloned from, making it a ‘perfect’ clone.

Acknowledgements
This paper was authored by Charles Ewan Milner.

Competing interests
There are no competing interests relating to this paper held by its authors.