'Virgin birth' mammal rewrites rules of biology
Sylvia Pagán Westphal

18:00 21 April 04

A mammal that is the daughter of two female parents has been created for the
first time.

Until now such a feat had been considered biologically impossible. But the
mouse, called Kaguya, was born without the involvement of any sperm or male
cell - only female eggs were needed.

In the same way that the birth of Dolly the sheep in 1997 shattered the
dogma that an adult cell could never be reprogrammed to make a new
individual, the fact that Kaguya lives challenges another one of long-held
rule: that two mammals of the same sex cannot combine their genomes to give
rise to viable offspring.

The virgin birth
What scientists learn from this remarkable rodent, created in Japan, is
likely to have an impact on fields from fundamental embryology to assisted
reproduction and even cloning.

However, several experts have already warned against assuming the method
could be used in humans to help two women have a biological child, not least
because the process is extremely inefficient.

It would also be highly risky and require a very large number of eggs. "To
do this kind of experimentation in humans would be outrageous," says
fertility specialist Gianpiero Palermo of Cornell University in New York.

Read the rest at New Scientist
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994909

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