We all know that "Dolly the Sheep" a ewe, was the first mammal to have been successfully cloned but whatever happened to ole Dolly? Where is she now?

lanfranco

Alas, poor Dolly is deceased. She aged prematurely (something I wondered about when she was cloned), and she eventually expired from a lung disease: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolly_the_sheep Feb 22 07, 5:56 PM

skysmom65

Yep, that's what it said when I was reading about her before I asked the question! In 1999 research was published in the journal Nature suggesting that Dolly may have been susceptible to premature aging, due to shortened telomeres in her cells[4]. It was speculated that these were passed on from her donor sibling, who was six years old when the genetic material was taken from her, so that Dolly may have been genetically six years old at birth. This is because telomere length is reduced after each cell division, which requires DNA replication before mitosis occurs. The polymerase, part of the replication machinery, cannot reach the end of the chromosome being replicated and clips a little of the telomere at the end off every time replication occurs. Possible signs of her condition were reported in January 2002, when Dolly was five years old. She had developed a potentially debilitating form of arthritis at an unusually early age. This supported the theory of premature senescence, although Dr. Dai Grove-White of the Faculty of Veterinary Science at Liverpool University was reported as saying, "Conceivably arthritis could be due to the cloning but equally it could not be. For all we know, she may have damaged her leg jumping over a gate and developed arthritis." http://www.answers.com/topic/dolly-the-sheep Feb 22 07, 6:00 PM