First successful clone

 

Cloning is the production of an exact copy of a cell, any other living part, or a complete organism. Cloning of an animal was successfully performed for the first time by Ian Wilmut and his colleagues at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland. On July 5, 1996, Dolly the sheep—the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell—is born

During the process of cloning Dolly, a cell was collected from the mammary gland of a female Finn Dorsett sheep, Simultaneously, an egg was obtained from a
Scottish blackface ewe . The nucleus was removed from the egg. After producing a number of normal eggs, scientists implanted them into surrogate ewes; 148 days later one of them gave birth to Dolly. Though Dolly was given birth by the Scottish blackface ewe, it was found to be absolutely identical to the Finn Dorsett sheep from which the nucleus was taken. Dolly’s birth was announced publicly in February 1997 to a storm of controversy. On one hand, supporters argued that cloning technology can lead to crucial advances in medicine. However, Since, the nucleus from the egg of the Scottish blackface ewe was removed, Dolly did not show any character of the Scottish blackface ewe. Dolly was a healthy clone of the Finn Dorsett sheep. Over the course of her short life, Dolly was mated to a male sheep named David and eventually gave birth to four lambs. In January 2002 she was found to have arthritis in her hind legs, a diagnosis that raised questions about genetic abnormalities that may have been caused in the cloning process. Unfortunately, Dolly died on 14th February 2003 due to a certain lung disease. Her early death raised more questions about the safety of cloning, both animal and human. As for Dolly, the historic sheep was stuffed and is now on display at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.