动物造模,体外生殖技术 z-bo 2020-09-08 337

　　Scientists are using assisted reproduction technology to produce hybrid embryos of the endangered white rhino (NWR) and its relatives. Researchers have previously fertilized large mammals (such as horses) in vitro, but this is the first successful case of growing rhino embryos to the blastocyst stage in vitro. This technology is expected to help protect the endangered genes, and greatly increase the chance of protecting some of the white rhino genes.

　　The white rhino is the most endangered mammal in the world. Not long ago, the last male white rhinoceros in the world died, and the remaining two female white rhinos became the only remaining members of the species on earth.

　　This time, Italian scientist Thomas Hildebrand of Leibniz Zoo and Wildlife Institute, Italian scientist Caserekari and his colleagues used hybridization technology to develop hybrid rhino embryos through in vitro fertilization. Embryos established embryonic stem cell lines. The researchers first thaw the cryogenically frozen male white rhino sperm, but the researchers found that the number of oocytes (eggs) in the female white rhinoceros was reduced, so the researchers could only inject oocytes from the cytoplasm of the male white rhino. I can inject sperm. It is fertilized by injecting it into the oocytes of its closely related subspecies Southern White Rhinoceros (SWR). Then, the researchers cultured the obtained North-South hybrid white rhino embryos to the blastocyst stage, then frozen them and transferred them as surrogates to female southern white rhinos.

　　The next task is to put the frozen embryos into the replacement southern white rhinoceros, make it pregnant and give birth normally. In addition, the researchers will also try to obtain oocytes from the remaining two female white rhinos. In a related commentary attached to the paper, the scientists said that this research “is expected to preserve the genes of the functionally extinct subspecies of white rhinoceros.”