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Chinese scientists deliver healthy mouse from same-sex parents

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Chinese scientists deliver healthy mouse from same-sex parents

In what appears to be a major breakthrough in reproductive science, Chinese researchers have delivered 29 healthy mouse from two same-sex mice.

The researchers announced the birth of the mammals on Thursday.

The research carried out by a team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences stunned geneticists by revealing they had effectively rewritten the rules of reproduction, and in the process discovered exactly why some animals, including humans, need to have sex.

The breakthrough came in the form of 29 mice successfully born to same-sex (female) parents.

The animals born of same sex parents also went on to have their own babies.

However, the researchers revealed that a similar experiment using two male parents failed, as the pups died within days of being born.

According to the researchers, they have identified and overcome the factor that makes joint male-female involvement in reproduction essential for humans.

Reactions to the announcement has centred on how the study may pave the way for single-sex humans to reproduce in the future, although not any time soon.

Read also: Apple takes over 300 engineers from semiconductor company, Dialog

Mammals can produce offspring only through sexual reproduction using a female egg fertilised by male sperm.

The process the Chinese team used involved identifying the genetic process that takes place at the point of mammalian conception that demands genes from both sexes.

They focused on a phenomenon known as “imprinting”, where for roughly 100 genes, only the copy that comes from the mother or only the copy that comes from the father ever becomes “switched on”.

In human embryos, the male genes make up for the female ones that are not switched on and vis versa.

This means an embryo made up of same-sex genes will effectively have some missing.

To overcome this barrier, the scientists obtained some embryonic stem cells from a female mouse and used the gene-editing Crispr-Cas9, which has been likened to a genetic pair of scissors, and were able to remove maternal imprinting by “snipping” out a single letter of genetic code from three crucial regions.

The edited stem cells were then injected into the egg of a second female mouse, which successfully formed an embryo.

Two-hundred-and-ten embryos were created to yield the 29 live mice.

Co-senior author Qi Zhou said: “This research shows us what’s possible.

“We saw that the defects in bimaternal mice can be eliminated and that bipaternal reproduction barriers in mammals can also be crossed through imprinting modification.”

Speaking on the breakthrough, Dr Teresa Holm, from the University of Auckland, said there is a chance in the long run that the technique could be developed to apply to humans.

“[The research] may even lead to the development of ways for same-sex couples to reproduce healthy children of their own,” she said, although she pointed to “significant ethical and safety concerns that would need to be overcome”.

 

 

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