Why was the Dolly the sheep such a major scientific achievement? Was she first mammal cloned from adult cell?

Question

Thanks a bunch!

Answer 1

There are people who will argue that Dolly was not a major scientific achievement, but rather a major technological achievement.

She was not the first animal to be cloned and survive, as another answer states. Frogs were cloned back in ... the twenties? thirties? THAT was a scientific achievement. It was possible to be done, the nucleus contained the genetic material, blah blah. Then we hit roadblocks in cloning adult cells. The group that cloned a sheep to make Dolly found how to get it to work with mammals. Yes, she was the first mammal cloned (and survived, she was one of ... five hundred attempts, I think? A thousand? I can't recall how many they did) from adult cells.

For more info, check out http://www.accessexcellence.org/WN/SUA09/clone297.html which also has a link to the original article in Nature.

Answer 2

She was the first cloned large animal. She did not survive that long, but gave insight into the predetermined age of cells.
For a clone to survive to normal adulthood, it requires cloning of an embryonic cell. Dolly was cloned from the cell of an adult sheep udder (I think). So the cell, and all the subsequent cells, that is, Dolly herself, aged more quickly.

Answer 3

She was the first animal to be cloned-and live. However, she was far from a perfect close, as her lifespan was much less than an average sheep and she faced many health problems.

Answer 4

I believe she was the first cloned animal that lived.