Speaking of cloned sheep, I believe that the first thing many people think of is the cloned sheep Dolly, who was born at the Rosslyn Institute in Scotland in 1996, but in fact, shortly after Dolly was born, our scientific researchers also cloned them. A lamb, and named it Yang Yang. Compared to Dolly's short life of more than 6 years, Yang Yang is much healthier. He was born on June 22, 2000, and died of aging until 2016. Therefore, Yang Yang has also become the world's first surviving somatic cell cloned goat, and the scientist who cloned him was academician Zhang Yong from Northwest A&F University , known as the "father of cloned sheep in China".
Zhang Yong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, is now a professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Veterinary Medicine of Northwest A&F University, and the academic leader of the first-level subject of veterinary medicine. He has been engaged in the theoretical and technical research of animal embryo bioengineering for a long time, and has presided over the national major special project of genetic modification, the 863 key project, the national natural fund key project, the national support project and a number of provincial and ministerial key projects. National "Experts with Outstanding Contributions", "Chinese Doctors with Outstanding Contributions", National "Hundreds and Thousands of Talents Project", member of the Veterinary Discipline Group of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council
, the father of Chinese cloned sheep, was born in March 1956 in Helinger County in the border area of Inner Mongolia. In 1984, he was admitted to the Department of Veterinary Medicine of Northwest Agricultural University (now Northwest A&F University) for a master's degree, and later went on to do a PhD. At that time, Zhang Yong's doctoral supervisor was Professor Wang Jianchen, one of the pioneers of animal science in our country. He was keenly aware of the broad prospects of embryo transfer technology and led a group of researchers to start embryo transfer experiments. In 1980, two goats with fresh embryo transfer were born in this school. In 1984, Xi'an Agricultural University established a goat embryo engineering laboratory.
Zhang Yong has been focusing on the theoretical and technical research of mammal breeding bioengineering. During his master's degree, he was responsible for completing the "Mouse Embryo Division Method and Identical Twin Test", which is known as , which created a successful precedent for mammalian embryo division in my country, ; subsequently, he was responsible for completing the "Goat Embryo Division and Identical Twin Test" , Recognized by peer experts as with international advanced level of outstanding scientific research results . During his Ph.D. study, the "Mouse Goat Half Embryo Freezing and Frozen Embryo Division Test" completed by Zhang Yong was identified by peer experts as with the international leading level , and his doctoral thesis was awarded as an excellent doctoral thesis in Shaanxi Province.
In 1990, Zhang Yong successfully bred the world’s first batch of 7 embryonic cloned goats; in 1995, he used embryonic nuclear transfer-removing the nucleus of one egg cell and implanting the embryonic nucleus of another fertilized egg to clone 45 goats. It formed the largest group of embryo cloned animals in the world at that time. Zhang Yong is therefore known as "the father of Chinese sheep cloned" .
The world's first surviving somatic cell cloned sheep
In 1996, the breeding farm of the Xinong University Animal Husbandry Department was specially assigned to Zhang Yong as a mammalian developmental biological engineering research base. After approval by the State Council, the base was officially named "China Clone Animal Base" .
In 1997, the somatic cell cloned sheep "Dolly" was born, which gave Zhang Yong a huge stimulus. After he cloned goats using embryonic nuclear transfer, he began to try to clone goats with somatic cells, but he never succeeded. At the end of 1999, Zhang Yong removed a piece of skin from behind the ear of a Shandong Xiaoqing sheep to clone a single cell. After it matured, the nucleus was taken out and injected into the enucleated oocyte . The oocyte came from another The goats were bred to form cloned embryos and moved into the uterus of two white female goats. On June 16, 2000, , the world's first somatic cell cloned goat, was born. Professor Zhang Yong named it "Yuan Yuan". Unfortunately, thirty-six hours later, Yuan Yuan died of "lung hypoplasia" and the weather. Six days after the death of
yuanyuan
yuanyuan, the lamb "Yangyang" developed from the second embryo was born, and lived up to expectations and survived until 2016. As the first surviving somatic cloned sheep in my country and even in the world, Yang Yang has attracted much attention since he was born.International Expo, 863 high-tech exhibition, and CCTV also made special programs, every year to witness the "Yangyang" style is in an endless stream, the number of people over one million .
On August 8, 2001, Yangyang Clone Yangyang successfully gave birth to a pair of fetuses of dragon and phoenix-"Huanhuan" and "Qingqing". Its father was the world's first embryo cloned Angora goat, proving somatic cloned goat and embryo cloned goat Like ordinary sheep, it has the function of natural reproduction and reproduction, which is the first case in the world. A few years later, Yangyang has been together for five generations.
"Yangyang" and her daughter "Qingqing", granddaughter "Tiantian", and great-granddaughter "Laughing" together
On January 23, 2016, the clone Yangyang Yang died after spending his 15th birthday and was The specimens will always be placed in the cloned sheep base.
Yangyang specimens
bred disease-resistant cloned cattle
In addition to the sheep clone project, Zhang Yong has also developed a series of disease-resistant transgenic cattle.
In the early morning of February 6, 2004, Zhang Yong stayed by the sheep pen until the fourth-generation somatic cell cloned goat was born, and named it "Xiaoxiao". Soon after leaving the base, Zhang Yong fell ill and was diagnosed with coronary heart disease and extensive myocardial infarction. During the treatment, the doctor used an imported thrombolytic drug, which was very expensive. Later Zhang Yong learned that it was a hemolytic protein extracted from a cow's milk. After recovering from his illness, Zhang Yong became interested in cattle research.
In 2006, Zhang Yong’s cow cloning project officially started. From the beginning, it was cloned and raised cows containing hemolytic protein in milk, but it did not enter the production stage. In 2009, Zhang Yong cultivated the world's first cloned cow with human defensin gene, , which was born by caesarean section, and its milk contained human defensin. The application prospect of this technology is that the milk of cows contains substances that can dissolve bacteria, so that the cows will not get mastitis and greatly reduce the use of antibiotics. Since then, Professor Zhang Yong continued to combine gene editing technology and cloning technology to cultivate disease-resistant dairy cow breeds. has promoted my country's cattle and sheep gene editing and disease-resistant breeding to become the forefront of the world . In March 2015, the research team led by him successfully bred genetically modified cows against tuberculosis, whose milk does not contain genetically modified ingredients. In 2019, Zhang Yong was elected an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
In recent years, Zhang Yong has led his team to conduct more in-depth and systematic research on somatic cell cloning of cattle and sheep, and solved the problem of low embryo rate of cattle and sheep cloned embryos, and created a high-efficiency cloning technology for cattle and sheep. Selected as one of the 4 exhibits in the biological field of the 70th Anniversary Achievement Exhibition of New China. His research results and academic achievements have been highly praised by colleagues at home and abroad, leading the innovation and development of my country's cattle and sheep embryo engineering, and made outstanding contributions to the cause of animal husbandry and veterinary medicine.
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Source: Northwest A&F University Admissions Office, Alumni Network of West Agriculture, West Agriculture Education Online, West Agriculture Talents, VIP
