October 23, 2013

expert reaction to press release offering dog cloning as a competition prize in the UK

South Korean firm Sooam Biotech announced a competition for UK dog owners to have their pet cloned.

Professor Chris Mason, Chair of Regenerative Medicine Bioprocessing, UCL, said:

“The surprise is not that cloning the pet dog is now possible, albeit at a hefty price, the surprise is that it has taken less than eight years to go from proof of concept to market. Snuppy, the first cloned dog, was born in 2005 being the only survivor of over 1,000 cloned embryos implanted into 123 dogs. This low efficiency reflects the high degree of difficulty in cloning dogs and is OK for proof of concept. If the South Korean team has progressed from an almost chance event to a robust reproducible cloning process in a few years, this would be a major achievement.

“Will the cloned family dog be the same as the original? Unfortunately not – whilst genetically identical, the equally important environmental factors will always be different. A cloned Rover will not be the same Rover, but Rover version 1.1 – a unique dog not just a carbon copy.”

Dr Dusko Ilic, Reader in Stem Cell Science, King’s College London, said:

“Dog cloning has been done in past and if people have money and are willing to pay for it, what is the problem? Of course, although the cloned dog might be genetically identical to the original, the features that the owner is looking for such as dog personality and temperament, may not be identical and I would not be surprised if the customers end up being disappointed.”

Professor Johnjoe McFadden, Professor of Molecular Genetics, University of Surrey, said:

“The cloning of Dolly the Sheep back in the 1996 was soon followed by cloning of cats (in 2004) and dogs (in 2005). The technique works, but is expensive and inefficient: only about one or two in a hundred attempts is successful. Clones are pretty close to being identical twins of the original animal and, just like identical twins, they are not completely identical because of developmental differences in the womb and exposure to different environments after birth: we are not just our genes!”

Professor Robin Lovell-Badge, Head of Developmental Genetics, MRC National Institute for Medical Research, said:

“Cloning in dogs works, but in common with other species such as sheep, mice, cows, etc., it is not an efficient process, and while it can give an animal that is genetically identical to the original dog from which cells are taken, it will not be completely identical in its “phenotype”: its appearance, anatomy, physiology, and behaviour.

“Because it is an inefficient process, anyone contemplating trying to clone their favorite dog needs to be willing to accept that there will be failures along the way. Many attempts will die as embryos, at any stage, but some as pups, and of course the female dogs used to carry the cloned embryos will have to bear the consequences of being pregnant and losing embryos and newborns. If willing to accept these costs, then is the outcome worth it?

“We, and our dogs, are not just a product of our DNA sequence and the genes it contains. Aspects of our appearance and anatomy are influenced by purely stochastic process; e.g. although genes determine that your Dalmatian will have spots, the exact pattern will occur by chance. The environment an embryo experiences during development in the uterus will also affect how it develops – so the mother’s nutritional state, and levels of hormones, toxic substances and stress, can all affect aspects of appearance such as size or body form, and aspects of physiology and susceptibility to specific pathological conditions even in later life (in humans these include obesity, diabetes, and heart attacks). And while perhaps a significant proportion of a dog’s behaviour is determined by its genes, or “nature” (after all, humans have bred certain breeds of dog for specific behaviours), many details will be influenced by its environment, or “nurture”. The cloned puppy will have been born to a mother that is different to the original – perhaps even a distinct breed of dog, and in conditions that are unlikely to reflect those in which the original was brought up. To make matters worse, because the clone is unlikely to match expectations, the owner is bound to treat it differently. The clone will have little chance of behaving the same as fifi, rufus, or fido.”

Professor Tom Kirkwood, Dean for Ageing & Director, Newcastle Initiative on Changing Age, Newcastle University, said:

“This development really troubles me, from both a scientific and human standpoint. Scientifically, we know that although cloning can work it just isn’t possible to create an identical organism. Not only is an animal shaped by factors other than its genetics, but also there are small random elements that will affect how individuals develop, which cloning technologies simply cannot overcome. Every time cells divide, they will undergo small changes (somatic mutations) in their DNA so a dog cloned from an adult cell simply can’t ever be a completely true replica of the original. Provided the cloned animal’s health isn’t compromised by these mutations, it may be a good likeness to the previous pet, but here the human issues come into play. As a dog owner myself, I can well understand the strength of the emotional bond we have with our pet animals. But dogs have shorter lifespans than humans and an important aspect of our relationship with them is coming to terms with the pain of letting go. As someone who has devoted my career to studying the ageing process, I’ve come to appreciate that one of the deep challenges we face, in a world where we are all likely to live very much longer than previous generations, concerns the way we face up to mortality, whether that be of our loved ones, our pets and ultimately ourselves.”

Professor John Harris, Lord David Alliance Professor of Bioethics, University of Manchester, said:

“Yes it probably can be done, dogs have been cloned in the past.  But no the clone won’t be exactly the same as the original dog in all respects, there will be epigenetic effects.

“Unless they have also cracked the problem of infinite longevity the clone is unlikely to be able to do as the advert claims and “go walkies forever”…”