Genomic Stability of Lyophilized Sheep Somatic Cells before and after Nuclear Transfer |
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| Authors: | Domenico Iuso Marta Czernik Fiorella Di Egidio Silvestre Sampino Federica Zacchini Michal Bochenek Zdzislaw Smorag Jacek A. Modlinski Grazyna Ptak Pasqualino Loi |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences, University of Teramo, Teramo, Italy.; 2. National Research Institute of Animal Production, Balice, Poland.; 3. Department of Experimental Embryology, Institute of Genetics and Animal Breeding, Polish Academy of Sciences, Jastrzebiec, Poland.; The Babraham Institute, United Kingdom, |
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| Abstract: | The unprecedented decline of biodiversity worldwide is urging scientists to collect and store biological material from seriously threatened animals, including large mammals. Lyophilization is being explored as a low-cost system for storage in bio-banks of cells that might be used to expand or restore endangered or extinct species through the procedure of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT). Here we report that the genome is intact in about 60% of lyophylized sheep lymphocytes, whereas DNA damage occurs randomly in the remaining 40%. Remarkably, lyophilized nuclei injected into enucleated oocytes are repaired by a robust DNA repairing activity of the oocytes, and show normal developmental competence. Cloned embryos derived from lyophylized cells exhibited chromosome and cellular composition comparable to those of embryos derived from fresh donor cells. These findings support the feasibility of lyophylization as a storage procedure of mammalian cells to be used for SCNT. |
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