April 21, 2004

scientists respond to ‘Mice Without a Father’ paper published in Nature

As a laboratory mouse is born by virgin birth, the first case of successful parthenogenesis in a mammal, experts respond.

Simon Best, Chair of Biotechnology Industry Association in Scotland, said:

“The paper shows that, like cloning, another asexual form of reproduction is possible in mice and may be possible in some other mammals. However, this was achieved with even lower efficiency than the cloning process used to make Dolly and therefore it is even more unacceptable and unsafe to consider using this for humans.

Ethically this does not pose dramatically new issues beyond cloning other than it is specific to females. This allows a good headline, but like cloning it is a genetic dead end.”

Professor Alison Murdoch, Chair of the British Fertility Society, said:

“This is an important scientific development that will help us to understand genetic imprinting and why babies are born with abnormalities, but it is important to stress that this has no relevance to the treatment of infertility.”

Professor Martin Bobrow, Professor of Medical Genetics, University of Cambridge, said:

“This is a different technological way to get a new mammal from the genes of one animal – therefore it is a wrinkle on the cloning issue. Ethically the arguments for and against applying this to human beings would be much the same as for other cloning techniques. Whether it is more or less safe remains to be seen.”

Professor Azim Surani, Marshall-Walton Professor of Physiology and Reproduction, University of Cambridge, said:

“This is an incredible achievement, the process of creating these mice required perseverance and patience: from around 600 eggs only two mice were created. As a result, this technique is far too complicated to be used in humans.”

Dr Anne Ferguson-Smith, Developmental Geneticist, University of Cambridge, said:

“This paper does not mean that males are obsolete – the requirement for paternal chromosomes for normal development is still with us. Kono’s work was conducted to a high technical standard, however it is noteworthy that only 0.6% of the embryos that he made survived. This means that, at this time, a maternal genome cannot effectively function to replace the male genome.”

Note to Editors Nature 22nd April 2004 Vol 428 p860. For more information on this paper or for the press release please contact Katherine Mansell on 0207 843 4658.

Dr George Ndukwe, Clinical Director of Centres for Assisted Reproduction, said:

“This is an interesting and impressive scientific feat. However, imprinting, whereby one of two copies of a gene is turned off, is essential for the development of mammals. To create a live mammal without fertilization, by switching off imprinting, will have serious consequences. Although these mice seem normal they will undoubtedly develop serious and rare diseases later in life.”