Using just a drop of blood from one mouse’s tail, scientists in Japan have been able to create 600 mice through cloning.
The clone-mice were able to live the full life span of a regular mouse and were also able to start families of their own.
Like the mice, a more famous clone, Dolly the Sheep, had been cloned from a grown up member of her species, but while she could start a family of her own, she only lived half the lifetime of a regular sheep.
Scientists did 25 rounds of cloning called Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer and ended up with nearly 600 exact clones of the first mouse. Mice have typically been harder to clone than other animals so scientists were very surprised to have so many mice with just a few drops of blood!
Looks like the Clone Army from STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS would owe their existence to the 600 Clone-Mice! Can you imagine watching STAR WARS: THE MOUSE WARS instead?
(Photograph: Riken Center for Developmental Biology)