Building a Better Sheep

Chinese scientists claim to have cloned a lamb carrying a roundworm gene that aids in the production of polyunsaturated fatty acids.

Written byBob Grant

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Not Peng PengWIKIMEDIA COMMONS, KEVEN LAW

Peng Peng, a cloned Chinese Merino sheep, is proof that a Caenorhabditis elegans gene involved in the production of polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are more healthful than their saturated cousins, can be successfully implanted in the genome of the sheep, Chinese researchers announced yesterday (April 24^th).

The lamb was born on March 26^th in China's Xinjiang region and is "growing very well and is very healthy like a normal sheep," lead scientist Du Yutao at the Beijing Genomics Institute (BGI) in Shenzhen in southern China told Reuters.

Peng Peng's birth follows the creation of other transgenic farm animals with enhanced abilities to produce more healthy fats. Last year, for example, Chinese and Argentine research teams independently reported the successful incorporation of human milk genes into ...

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
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From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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