Molecular Genetics

(submitted by SS) Until now, scientists have only been able to produce clones using cells from live animals. This is how researchers created Dolly the Sheep, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult animal.

Researchers had thought that frozen cells were unusable because ice crystals would have damaged the DNA. That belief would rule out the possibility of resurrecting extinct animals from their frozen remains.

Recently, scientists in Japan have generated clones from frozen mice. Mice that have been dead and frozen for 16 years. This opens the possibility of cloning mammoths and other animals that long disappeared from the extant fauna of the Earth. Jurassic Park is one step closer…