Cloning

Nuclear Transplantation in Amphibia

Author:

Robert Gilmore McKinnell

Table of Contents

Some Early Experiments that Suggested the Feasibility of Amphibian Cloning

Blastula Nuclei Transplanted

The Transplantation of Nuclei Obtained from Embryos beyond that Blastula Stage, Rana pipens

Transplantation of Nuclei Obtained from Tumors of Rana pipens

The Transplantation of Nuclei Obtained from Embryos beyond the Blastula Stage: Xenopu laevis, Urodeles, and Some Studies from Russia and China

The Cloning of Adults and Other Transfers of Mature Nuclei

An Omnibus Chapter: A Discussion of Nuclear Transfer Studies Not Relating Directly to Nuclear Differentiation

Appendixes

In this, the first published monograph devoted exclusively to the cloning procedure, Professor McKinnel reviews the results obtained in nuclear transplantation experiments with amphibia and provides an extensive discussion of the methodology used. He explains that while biologists generally use the word “cloning” to refer to the production of multiple genetically identical individuals, he uses it in a more general sense to refer to one or more individuals produced by nuclear transplantation. He points out that results obtained from the cloning technique are often oversimplified and are sometimes misleading, and he discusses conditions which may lead to success or failure in achieving cloning. The extensive section on methodology describes, sufficiently to instruct new comers to the technique, the preparation of microscopic tools, micromanipulation procedure, the husbandry and reproductive biology of amphibians, dissociation of donor cells, and the activation and enucleation of mature ova. The work is generously illustrated with halftones and line drawings.

Robert Gilmore McKinnel, Professor of Genetics and Cell Biology Emeritus at the University of Minnesota, began his frog cloning studies at the Institute for Cancer Research in Philadelphia and Tulane University in New Orleans. He is the author of a scholarly monograph, Cloning: Nuclear Transplantation in Amphibia, published by the University of Minnesota Press, and has testified before a Congressional committee on the problems connected with cloning.

Robert Gilmore McKinnell is Professor Emeritus of Genetics and Cell Biology at the University of Minnesota.

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