Happy Birthday Dolly: The First Mammal Cloned From an Adult Cell

On Dolly’s 22nd birth anniversary, here’re some interesting facts about her.

Here’re some interesting facts about Dolly the Sheep. 

(Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia Commons)

Happy birthday, Dolly!

Dolly who, you ask?

Well, she was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell in 1996. A team from The Roslin Institute in Scotland, used a cell which was extracted from the mammary gland of a Finn Dorset sheep, and an egg from a Scottish Blackface sheep to make a clone, who was named Dolly.

She was a considered a scientific wonder since her birth proved that cells with specialised functions could create an exact replica of the animals they belonged to.

Though other sheep were cloned before Dolly, she was the first one to be cloned from an adult cell. This was unheard of until then.

Eight other mammals (pigs, cats, deer, horses, dogs, mice, wild goats, gray wolves) have been cloned since Dolly the Sheep.

Though it has been 16 years since Dolly passed away, here’re some interesting facts about her:

Dolly, a ewe, was the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult cell in Scotland.  (Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia Commons)

Scientists used ‘somatic cell nuclear transfer technique’ to clone Dolly. In this technique, a cell is placed in a de-nucleated ovum, the two cells fuse and then develop into an embryo.(Photo Courtesy: Pixabay)

Dolly’s DNA came from a mammary gland cell. So she was named after Dolly Parton, an American singer.(Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia Commons)

Dolly gave birth to a total of six lambs - Bonnie, twins Rosie and Sally and triplets, Lucy, Darcy and Cotton.(Photo Courtesy: Wikipedia Commons)

In 2003, tests showed that Dolly had tumours growing in her lungs. Unwilling to let her suffer, a decision to euthanise her was made. (Photo: Courtesy: @curiositystream/ Instagram)

Dolly was put to sleep on 14th February 2003.

Here’s remembering Dolly on what would have been her 23rd birthday.

Happy birthday, Dolly!

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