Mice produced by mitotic reprogramming of sperm injected into haploid parthenogenotes

What is it about?

In 1827 by Karl Ernst von Baer first observed mammalian eggs and concluded that animals develop from eggs, a view that has pertained ever since. In this paper, it is shown that mice can develop efficiently when sperm are introduced not into eggs, but into parthenogenetic embryos. To some, this is a surprising finding, because the embryos are different from eggs in some respects more closely resemble other non-egg cells.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

This is the first report that full term development by injecting sperm into non-egg cells. The technique we describe provides a unique biological platform for dissecting the molecular mechanism by which totipotency (the ability of a cell to engender an entire organism) emerges in mammalian fertilisation. This discovery may also raise ethical questions for the proposed used of human parthenogenotes as a source of embryonic stem cells.