What's the matter with embryo segmentation

summary

Embryo segmentation: a new biological technique of cutting early embryos into two or four equal parts by means of micromanipulation or manual operation, and then transplanting them to the recipient female, so as to obtain identical twins or multiple embryos.

What's the matter with embryo segmentation

First, the offspring from the same embryo have the same genetic material, so embryo segmentation can be regarded as one of the methods of animal asexual reproduction or cloning.

Second, although nuclear transfer technology can greatly improve the breeding of animal breeds, it has little effect to improve the reproduction rate of excellent mammalian breeds by means of enucleated oocyte replication or nucleocytoplasmic hybridization. Because the females of mammals, unlike those of fish and frogs, can lay many eggs at a time, generally 1-2 or even several.

Third: when a fertilized egg develops into an embryo, it has to undergo a division of the fertilized egg cell into two, two into four, four into eight In 1979, Willardson, a biologist at the University of Cambridge in England, first thought of the method of dividing the cells from the fertilized eggs in the process of developing into embryos, and then culturing the divided embryonic cells separately, so as to develop a complete new generation. He carried out the experiment with the immature embryos of sheep.

matters needing attention

The application of embryo segmentation technology can not only double the number of embryos used in embryo transfer. And it can produce offspring with the same genetic properties. This has a special role in animal husbandry production and experimental research, such as the study of the influence of external environment and conditions on livestock growth and production performance. The results of experiments with identical twins or twins with the same genetic properties are much more accurate. At the same time, the application of embryo segmentation technology can also indirectly control the sex, thus greatly improving the value and practical effect of embryo transfer.