DOLLY THE SHEEP Biography - Famous Scientists

 
 

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DOLLY THE SHEEP

Dolly (July 5, 1996 - February 14, 2003), a female sheep or ewe, was the first   
mammal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell, using the process of nuclear     
transfer. The cell used was a mammary gland , proving that a cell taken from a   
specific body part could create a whole individual. She was named Dolly after     
the curvaceous country western singer Dolly Parton.[1] Previously it was         
believed that a specific cell could only produce replicas of the same body part   
from which it was obtained. She was cloned by Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and     
colleagues at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland, and lived there until 
her death at age six. Her birth was announced in February 1997.                   
                                                                                 
On November 11, 2003 it was announced that Dolly had been euthanised because of   
a progressive lung disease and crippling arthritis. A Finn Dorset such as Dolly   
would have had a life expectancy of around 12 - 15 years, but Dolly lived to be   
only 6 years of age. Dolly did not die because of being a clone: an autopsy       
confirmed she had Ovine Pulmonary Adenocarcinoma (Jaagsiekte), a fairly common   
disease of sheep caused by the retrovirus JSRV. Roslin scientists stated that     
they did not think there was a connection with Dolly's being a clone and that     
other sheep on the farm had similar ailments. Such lung diseases are a           
particular danger for sheep kept indoors, and Dolly had to sleep indoors for     
security reasons. However, some believe the reason for Dolly's death was that     
she was actually born with a genetic age of 6 years, the same age the sheep from 
which she was cloned. One basis for this was that Dolly's telomeres were short,   
typically a result of the aging process.