According to the scientists, early experiments claim that one day it would be possible to make babies even without eggs. They succeeded in breeding mice out of sperm in the same process as the fertilization of normal eggs.
According to the findings in “Nature Communications” the scientists claim that this innovation may bring about a motherless process of breeding children.
The following article will explain some details of the process of fertilization.
Is This an End of Mum and Dad?
The scientists from the University of Bath started their experiment with an unfertilized egg. By using chemicals they brought about a pseudo-embryo. These pseudo-embryos are very similar to the ordinary cells, especially the skin cells, in the way they divide their DNA.
The scientists believed that a combination of a sperm and a mouse pseudo-embryo will develop healthy baby mice, a promising process that will achieve even similar results in humans. The difficulty of achieving a successful pregnancy was only one in four.
According to Dr. Perry, the leading scientist, this is the first time to show that it was not only an egg capable of combining with sperm in order to give a baby. The new invention changed the 200 years held belief. The mice’s offspring were alive and healthy, expected to grow their own babies when grow up.
The Process of Fertilization
Scientists are interested to understand the mechanisms of the process of fertilization because the internal process of egg and sperm fusion is still a mystery. The role of the egg is to change the complete DNA of the sperm and to re-dresses it in an embryo. They are particularly interested in the point of change. This step of creating a baby without the need for a female egg would have a great impact on society.
Dr. Perry claims that it is possible to produce an embryo out of ordinary cells from the body and sperm. This would be especially important for the gay population because it can enable two men could have a child, the one would donate cells and the other sperm. It could enable one single man could have his own child, donating his cells and sperm at the same time. The child will be more like a twin than a clone.
However, these are still speculative plans for the future. The Chinese scientists have BBC, which was able to fertilize a mouse egg.
According to Dr. Perry, the combination of these two fields may provide fertilization without the need for eggs and sperm altogether. Prof. Lovell-Badge pointed out that this is a really interesting and exciting paper. It will provide great detail on the reprogramming process and embryonic development as well as single transfer or cloning.
Via BBC