Mouse With Two Male Parents Survives to Adulthood

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Source: https://neurosciencenews.com/bipaternal-mice-genetics-28389/

Summary:

Researchers have successfully engineered bi-paternal mice, born from two male parents, that survived to adulthood using embryonic stem cell techniques. By modifying 20 key imprinting genes, they overcame the developmental barriers that previously limited unisexual reproduction in mammals.

Though only 11.8% of embryos developed to term, the findings highlight imprinting abnormalities as a major obstacle in mammalian unisexual reproduction. The research advances regenerative medicine, offering insights into imprinting-related diseases, but ethical and technical challenges remain for extending this work to larger animals or humans.

Key Facts:

Breakthrough Technique: Editing 20 imprinting genes enabled bi-paternal mice to survive to adulthood.

Developmental Limitations: Only 11.8% of embryos reached birth, with many exhibiting defects.

Future Goals: Researchers aim to extend findings to larger animals and improve outcomes.

A team of stem cell scientists have successfully used embryonic stem cell engineering to create a bi-paternal mouse—a mouse with two male parents—that lived until adulthood.

Their results, publishing on January 28, 2025, in the Cell Press journal Cell Stem Cell, describe how targeting a particular set of genes involved in reproduction allowed the researchers to overcome previously insurmountable challenges in unisexual reproduction in mammals.

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