SCIENTISTS LEARN TO MAKE OFFSPRING WITH NO DADS (4-2004)

Mother’s Day may have taken on new meaning, at least if 
you’re a mouse. That’s thanks to a group of scientists 
working in Japan and Korea. 

The scientists have succeeded for the first time in 
producing a mammal that is the offspring of two mothers, 
and no father. But we guys shouldn’t worry yet. The 
researchers claim the experiment is not designed to pave 
the way to the future elimination of the male gender.

In fact, they say the procedure wouldn’t work on humans, 
even at a technical level.  That’s because one of the 
mother mice had to be a mutant, specially created for the 
purpose of donating specialized egg cells.

That’s certainly a relief. Most of the researchers on the 
project were males, so it wouldn’t seem right for them to 
set the stage for the eventual elimination of their own 
kind, although I have heard more than one woman state that 
males are of no value.

Some lower life forms, such as one species of lizard, have 
taken the evolutionary step of eliminating males from the 
population. The females of the species produce eggs that 
are already fertile and can develop into baby lizards, all 
of whom will be female and identical to their mother. The 
process is known as parthenogenesis.

It’s actually an evolutionary step backward, because sexual 
reproduction leads to far more variation, which might come 
in handy should the environment ever change. The more 
variation a species holds in its gene pool, the better able 
it is to adapt to a changing environment.

The researchers said the technique could be applied to 
agricultural projects and for scientific purposes. It might 
also be used to develop a new method of producing stem 
cells from human egg cells instead of embryos. 

Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that have the 
capability of growing into any kind of tissue. Stem cell 
research holds great promise of one day eliminating genetic 
defects and of perhaps making it possible to cure brain and 
spinal cord injuries. 

But the Bush administration has stubbornly refused to allow 
researchers to use human embryos, even those that would be 
discarded anyway, on ethical grounds. So if scientists can 
find a way to coax an egg cell into developing stem cells 
without being fertilized, it could mean an end to the 
ethical dilemma.

Any kind of practical use for the research is still years 
away. It took hundreds of eggs from female mice to produce 
just two offspring. 

But as researchers learn how to make the process more 
efficient, others will come up with new ways to utilize the 
technology in new and different ways. Perhaps, one day, 
human egg cells can be used to grow millions of viable stem 
cells, which can then be used to furnish any kind of body 
tissue we need.

It’s just like I’ve always said, we can learn a lot from a 
lizard.