VPB 321: Animal Biotechnology (2+1)

PROGRAMMES OF GENE BANKING

• Several programs are working to preserve the genes of endangered animals. China's Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding keeps eggs, sperm and other tissue samples from pandas and other natives species preserved in cold storage.
• The United Kingdom's Frozen Ark Project has taken on the mission of creating a network of similar gene banks around the world devoted to endangered animals.
• Scientists in India have taken the idea a step farther by working to eventually reintroduce the Indian cheetah back in to the wild, more than half a century after it was declared extinct. While the researchers lack cryogenically preserved tissue, they have been able to collect skin and bone tissues from museums and zoos. They hope to fill in the genetic blanks by studying the genes of similar cheetah populations in modern-day Iran.
• Some gene banks have set out to document and store DNA from major livestock breeds. The United Kingdom's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development founded a semen archive to safeguard the genetic profiles of rams in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
• To preserve genetic information for animals, scientists must cryogenically freeze diverse specimens of sperm, eggs, hair, skin and blood from target species to provide the best chance for future cloning. To achieve this, scientists would use a female from a related species as a surrogate mother.
•  They'd take one of the surrogate's eggs and fuse it with a cell from the animal to be cloned. The mother would, in effect, give birth to another species -- making her a biologic mother, but not a genetic one.