CC
CC the first cloned cat, age 2, with her owner, Shirley Kraemer, in College Station, Texas
BreedDomestic shorthair
Born(2001-12-22)December 22, 2001
College Station, Texas
DiedMarch 3, 2020(2020-03-03) (aged 18)
College Station, Texas
Known forFirst cloned pet

CC, for "CopyCat" or "Carbon Copy"[1] (December 22, 2001 – March 3, 2020), was a brown tabby and white domestic shorthair and the first cloned pet.[2] She was cloned by scientists at Texas A&M University in conjunction with Genetic Savings & Clone Inc. CC's surrogate mother was a tabby, but her genetic donor, Rainbow, was a calico domestic longhair. The difference in hair coloration between CC and Rainbow is due to X-inactivation and epigenetic re-programming, which normally occurs in a fertilized embryo before implantation.[3][4]

In December 2006, CC gave birth to four kittens. The litter was fathered naturally by another lab cat named Smokey. It included two males named Tim and Zip and one female named Tess. Another kitten (a female) was stillborn. This incident was the first time a cloned pet gave birth. Throughout her life, CC appeared to be free of the cloning-related health problems that have arisen in some other animal clones. "CC has always been a perfectly normal cat and her kittens are just that way, too," according to Shirley Kraemer, CC's owner. "We've been monitoring their health and all of them are fine, just like CC has been for the past five years."[5]

In 2004, Genetic Savings and Clone produced the first commercially cloned pet, a Maine Coon cat named "Little Nicky" who was cloned from a 17-year-old deceased pet cat.[6]

On March 3, 2020, CC died at 18 years old in College Station, Texas.[7]

See also

References

  1. ^ Science Magazine Report Archived 2013-09-05 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Westhusin, Mark; Lyons, Leslie; Murphy, Keith; Buck, Sandra; Lisa Howe; Rugila, James; Liu, Ling; Pryor, Jane; Kraemer, Duane (February 2002). "Cell biology: A cat cloned by nuclear transplantation". Nature. 415 (6874): 859. Bibcode:2002Natur.415..859S. doi:10.1038/nature723. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 11859353. S2CID 4431855.
  3. ^ Berkowitz, Lana (May 17, 2011). "First cloned cat turns 10". Houston Chronicle. Archived from the original on December 24, 2015. Retrieved 2015-09-12.
  4. ^ "Is the Coat Color and Spot Pattern of Cloned Animals the Same as Their Genetic Donor?". Viagen Pets. 2017-09-13. Retrieved 2019-01-29.
  5. ^ "Copy Cat: First Cloned Cat Produces 3 Kittens". December 13, 2006. Archived from the original on December 14, 2015. Retrieved 2015-09-12.
  6. ^ Jha, Suzanne Goldenberg Alok (2004-12-24). "The world's first cloned pet (cost $50,000)". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2018-01-10.
  7. ^ "The world's first cloned pet CC lived long normal happy life before her death". CBS-DFW. 2020-03-03. Retrieved 2020-03-05.

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