Breakthrough: Mice With Two Dads Successfully Have Babies

Mice with two fathers and no mother have now had offspring of their own. The study is a breakthrough in androgenesis – asexual reproduction using only genetic material from male animals.

We've seen androgenesis in mice work in the lab before: earlier this year, researchers produced mice from genetic material from two males by fertilizing eggs missing the mother's genetic material. However, the resulting offspring were infertile.

In this latest study by a team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China, they focused on editing specific imprinting control regions (ICRs) to enable the development of androgenetic mice that are fertile. By injecting sperm from two male mice into mouse eggs and editing seven specific ICRs, they were able to produce live mouse births.

While there's room for improvement, this research shows promise in the field of imprint editing for asexual reproduction in mammals.

According to the source: ScienceAlert.