Chinese researchers design new technology for semi-cloning in zebrafish

BEIJING, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese researchers have developed a novel technology for semi-cloning in zebrafish, according to a recent research article published in the journal Cell Research.

Semi-cloning represents a unique approach to generating individual animals, while zebrafish serve as a key model organism for studying vertebrate development and diseases.

Current technologies have shortcomings or limited performance, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). As a result, the efficient and rapid creation of gene-edited zebrafish models has long been a major bottleneck in the field.

The researchers from the CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science used fresh haploid cells at the blastocyst stage to generate fertile semi-cloned zebrafish. After optimization, the success rate increased to around 30 percent.

Based on haploid blastocyst cell nuclear transfer, this technology yields semi-cloned zebrafish with uniform traits. By performing multiplex gene editing in haploid embryos, it enables one-step generation of donor cells with various genotype combinations and produces both male and female semi-cloned zebrafish.

The findings render the semi-cloning system a valuable platform for zebrafish genetic analysis, said the CAS. Enditem