The Curious Case of the Carbon Copy Kitty

by Nancy M. Boury

Department of Animal ScienceIowa State University, Ames, IA

The Star

2Image used by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature (Shin, et al, 2002, 415, 859) copyright 2002, http://www.nature.com.

Part I: Kitty TroublesIn each group - Person #1

Please tell your group the background on Patch and the problem faced by her

TV show’s producers.

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What does Clontronics propose?

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So what is cloning?

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The Cloning ProcessPatch’s nucleus

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Video of Nuclear Transfer

From: HHMI Biointeractive video site at http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/video/index.html

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CQ#1: Was the production of the clone a form of asexual or sexual reproduction?

A. Asexual

B. Sexual

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CQ#2: What do you think? Can cloning produce a calico cat identical to Patch?

A. Yes

B. No

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CQ#3: The cheek cells that are harvested are ___.

A. Haploid, just like the rest of the other cells in Patch’s body.

B. Triploid, because they are cheek cells.C. Diploid, just like the rest of the somatic cells

in Patch’s body.D. Diploid, but half the chromosomes are in

the cytoplasm, and half are in the nucleus.

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A. Identical to the original, they are clones after all.

B. Diploid, but not identical.C. Haploid, but identical in appearance to the

male sperm donor.D. Haploid, assuming it completed

development.

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CQ#4: Mr. Pseudofelis said if Patch was male, he could have cloned the cat using sperm without surgery. If he had used sperm, the cloned kitty would be ____.

Part II: Work In Progress

Person #2: Please summarize the new developments in the cloning

of Patch.

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The Cloning ProcessPatch’s nucleus

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Fluffy

CQ#5: Assuming Clontronics used the same method of cloning used for Dolly the sheep, what contribution did Fluffy make to this process?

A. She was the DNA donor.

B. She was the egg donor.

C. She was the sperm donor.

D. She was the incubator.

E. Fluffy was not needed to clone Patch.

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CQ#6: If Clontronics is using the same kitty-cloning process described by Shin et al., should the producers expect three viable kittens because there are three implanted embryos?

A. Yes

B. No

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CQ#7: Do clones develop faster than normal offspring?

A. Yes

B. No

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CQ#8: Is $2 million really the going rate for a cloned cat?

A. Yes

B. No

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Part III: What Happened??

This is the kitty that Clontronics delivered…

18Image used by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature (Shin, et al, 2002, 415, 859) copyright 2002, http://www.nature.com.

Person #3: Explain this newest development to your

group.

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Clontronics is sued for breach of contract.

In their defense, they produce a DNA fingerprint of the clone,

Patch and Fluffy.

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DNA Fingerprinting

http://www.dnai.org

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Exhibit A

22Table used by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature (hin, et al, 2002, 415, 859) copyright 2002, http://www.nature.com.

CQ#9: There are two different numbers listed for each marker tested because___.

A. Cats are haploid.

B. The scientists wanted to check their work.

C. Cats are diploid.

D. Each marker is found in both the nuclear and extranuclear DNA.

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CQ#10: If cats were tetraploid (4n) species, each of these markers would have at most how many different lengths when testing a single cat?

A. One

B. Two

C. Three

D. Four

E. Scientists can’t currently test anything that isn’t haploid

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CQ#11: Clontronics promised a cat that was genetically identical to Patches. Given the data in Exhibit A, was the clone genetically identical to Patches?

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A. Yes B. No

CQ#12: What color is present in Patch, but absent in her clone?

A. Orange

B. Black

C. White

D. Patch is identical to her clone

26Images used by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature (Shin, et al, 2002, 415, 859) copyright 2002, http://www.nature.com.

Patches is a calico cat. Is this relevant?

How are the orange and black patches formed in a calico

cat?

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Lyonization

Orange Black

After several rounds of cleavage O=orangeB= black

RandomX inactivation

Orange

Black

Barr Body

Black

Orange

Barr Body

O

B

B

B

O

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CQ#13: The expert witness explained the process of lyonization to the jury. Based on this explanation, the cell that was taken from Patch had what difference that caused the difference in phenotype between clone and original cat?

A. It had different mitochondria.B. It had a Barr body with an inactivated white

producing X chromosome.C. It had a Barr body with an inactivated black

pigment producing X chromosome.D. It had an active Y chromosome.E. It had a Barr body with an inactivated orange

pigment producing X chromosome.29

CQ#14: If you were on the jury, how would you vote?

A. In favor of Clontronics, they did produce a genetically identical clone.

B. In favor of the TV executives, they were misled, so give them their $20 million.

C. In favor of the TV executives, but only award $2 million.

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Exhibit B: Patch, Fluffy and the clone.

31Image used by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature (Shin, et al, 2002, 415, 859) copyright 2002, http://www.nature.com.

For further reading

What is warm and fuzzy forever? With cloning, kitty. New York

Times Feb 15, 2002

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Image CreditsSlides 2, 18, 25, and 31Description: Photo of cats.Source: From a two-paneled figure entitled “Figure 1: Nuclear-donor cat, and cloned kitten with its surrogate mother.” Panel (a) portrays the adult female that supplied the cumulus cells for the nuclear transplantation; panel (b) shows the surrogate mother and the cloned kitten. From: Shin, T., Kraemer, D., Pryor, J., Liu, L., Rugila, J., Howe, L., Buck, S. Murphy, K., Lyons, L., Wethusin, M. (2002) A cat cloned by nuclear transplantation. Nature 415:859. doi:10.1038/nature723.Link: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v415/n6874/fig_tab/nature723_F1.html.Clearance: Reproduced with permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature, copyright 2002. License #2743810036853.

Slides 6 & 13Description: Diagram of reproductive and therapeutic cloning.Author: en: converted to SVG by Belkorin, modified and translated by Wikibob.Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cloning_diagram_english.svg#fileClearance: Image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Slide 7Description: Somatic cell nuclear transfer.Source: Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI).Link: http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/media/scnt_video-lg.movClearance: Used in accordance with the terms of use of HHMI at http://www.hhmi.org/popups/copyright.html.

Slide 22Description: Table 1. Analysis of feline genetic markers. Source: Shin, T., Kraemer, D., Pryor, J., Liu, L., Rugila, J., Howe, L., Buck, S. Murphy, K., Lyons, L., Wethusin, M. (2002) A cat cloned by nuclear transplantation. Nature 415:859. doi:10.1038/nature723.Link: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v415/n6874/fig_tab/nature723_F1.html.Clearance: Reproduced with permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature, copyright 2002. License #2743810036853.

Slide 27Description: Diagram of lyonization. Source: Nancy M. Boury, case author.Clearance: Used with permission. 33