From TIME
By Alice Park
Jan. 9,2006
Is Snuppy the Puppy for Real?
With Hwang's scientific credibility in shambles, the status of the world's most famous dog hangs in the balance. The embattled scientist maintains that Snuppy is the world's first canine clone, and he even hired an independent Korean DNA lab, Human Pass Inc, to verify that assertion. The verdict: Human Pass CEO Seung Jae Rhee told TIME last week, "There is no dispute about these results, and so I am 100% certain on Snuppy's authenticity." But since Human Pass is in essence working for Hwang, that's hardly good enough for the investigative panel at Seoul National University, which is carrying out independent tests, or for the editors of Nature, who have ordered an investigation.
If Snuppy really was cloned from the ear cell of a 3-year-old male Afghan named Tai, it
shouldn't be tough to prove, even to those outside investigators. As long as they have tissue
samples from both the clone and the parent, they should be able to determine whether
DNA in the nuclei of both animals' cells is identical-the first hallmark of a true clone.
Ian Wilmut, the Scottish scientist who created Dolly the sheep in 1996, had to provide such
samples to prove to skeptics that he had created history's first mammalian clone.
Even with the controversy raging over his stem-cell paper, Hwang could have forestalled
some of the questions about Snuppy if he had offered one additional bit of confirming
proof in his original paper in Nature. That piece of critical evidence comes from the animals'
mitochondria, tiny energy-producing structures within each cell. While most of a mammal's
DNA resides in the nucleus, there's also some in the mitochondria. (Nuclear DNA forms
the animal's basic genetic blueprint; mitochondrial DNA contains instructions for making
proteins involved in various metabolic functions within the cell. )
Mitochondrial DNA is passed down from the mother as gart of the egg's genetic
contribution. Identical twins, for example, have the same nuclear and mitochondrial DNA,
since they're produced when a single egg is fertilized and the resulting embryo splits in two.
With a clone, the situation is different. Because the cloning process that Hwang says he used
to create Snuppy involves two dogs-one for the nucleus and another for the egg-Snuppy's
mitochondrial DNA should not match Tai's. That's what Rhee's scientists say they've found
and what Hwang undoubtedly hopes the university and Nature will find as well. Final, ironclad
proof of Snuppy’s provenance would involve showing that the dog's mitochondrial DNA
matches that of his egg donor .It's not clear, however, whether that test is being done.
词汇注解
重点单词
credibility /;kredi’biliti/
【文中释义】 n. 可信用,确实性,可靠
【大纲全义】 n. 可信用,确实性,可靠
balance /'bæləns/
【文中释义】 n.天平,平衡
【大纲全义】 v. 称,(使)平衡;权衡 n.天平; 平衡,均衡;差领,余放; 结存
maintain /men'tein/
【文中释义】 v. 坚特
【大纲全义】v. 维修,保养,维持,供养,坚持,主张,支持
verify /'verifai/
【文中释义】 v. 查证,核实
【大纲全义】 v. 证实,查证;证明
panel /'pænl/
【文中释义】n. 专门问题小组
【大纲全义】 n. 面板,嵌板,座谈小组,专门问题小组 v. 嵌镶
tissue /'tisju:/
【文中释义】 n. (动、植物的)组织
【大纲全义】 n. 织物,薄娟,纸巾;(劝,位物的)组织
nuclei / 'nju:kliai/
【文中释义】 n. (nucleus的复数形式)细胞核
【大纲全义】 n. (nucleus的复数形式)核,核心,原子核;细胞核
additional /ə’diʃənl/
【文中释义】 adj. 附加的,另外的
【大纲全义】 adj. 额外的,附加的,另外的
nucleus /'nju:kliəs/
【文中释义】 n. 细胞核
【大纲全义】 n. 核,核心,原子核;细胞核
blueprint /'blu:,print/
【文中释义】n. 蓝图
【大纲全义】n. 蓝图,设计图,计划 v. 制成蓝图,计划
超纲单词
shamble n. 满跚,摇羌 embattled adj. 陷入重围的
canine adj. 犬的,犬科的 hallmark n. 品质证明,标志
mammalian adj. 哺乳劝物的 mitochondria n. 线粒体
metabolic adj. 新陈代谢的 embryo n. 胚胎