■ India’s first cloned desi Gir female calf Ganga ◇ Context: | UPSC NOTES & CURRENT AFFAIRS
■ India’s first cloned desi Gir female calf Ganga
◇ Context: The National Dairy Research Institute ( est. 1956, under ICAR, based in Haryana’s Karnal) has produced the first-ever clone of a calf belonging to the indigenous Gir cow breed. The calf has been named Ganga.
□ Process:
◇ Scientists used three animals for producing this calf: Oocyte was taken from the Sahiwal breed, a somatic cell from the Gir breed, and a surrogate animal was a crossbreed.
□ What is Reproductive cloning?
◇ Reproductive cloning is a process by which an exact genetic replica, or clone, of an existing organism, is created through a type of cloning called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT).
◇ This involves removing the nucleus of an egg cell and replacing it with the nucleus of a somatic cell (a non-reproductive cell) from the organism to be cloned.
