The world's first cloned(克隆)cat, Copy Cat, or CC for short, is breaking more boundaries as she turns 18 years old."There are no big plans to mark the day, but CC will be the focus of a Dutch cartoon set for release on her birthday, researcher and owner Duane Kraemer said.
CC became the first cloned cat when she was born on December 22,2001, after Kraemer and fellow Texas A&M researcher Mark Westhusin had attempted 188 nuclear transfers and produced 82 cloned embryos(胚胎). The motivation for attempting to create CC was not just to have a cloned cat, but to research genetic engineering. Kraemer noted the university is doing much more genetic engineering work than specifically clone research now.
When the first cloned cat had been successfully created, Kraemer and Westhusin were on TV almost for two weeks. "It was really a big deal, and the university has indicated it was the biggest story ever out of the university," he said, noting CC is even included in a book about the history of College Station.
Every animal used in the research was adopted, Kraemer said, but his wife chose CC. CC is not only enjoying life as the Kraemers' pet, but she has her own condo called the"kitty house" behind the Kraemers' house where she lives with her three babies. Tim, Zip and Tess were born on September 1, 2006. There had not been much research done in the reproductive(繁殖的)success of clones — and none had been done with a cat.
Besides that, CC also proved not all clones die young. "Dolly, the sheep, that was the first of the mammals to be cloned by nuclear transfer, had died at, I think, at 6 years of age," Kraemer said."So the fact that CC didn't die young was news."
