A newly developed cloning technique in sturgeons; an important step towards recovering endangered species

Effrosyni Fatira (1) , Miloš Havelka (2) , Catherine Labbé (3) , Alexandra Depince (3) , Martin Pšenička (1) , Taiju Saito (1, 2)

1 Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters [University of South Bohemia]
2 South Ehime Fisheries Research Center
3 LPGP - Laboratoire de Physiologie et Génomique des Poissons

Several steps of sturgeon somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) have been recently established, but improvements are needed to make it a feasible tool to preserve the natural populations of this group of endangered species. The donor cell position inside the recipient egg seems to be crucial for its reprogramming; therefore by injecting multiple donor somatic cells instead of a single cell with a single manipulation, we increased the potential for embryo development. Using the Russian sturgeon Acipenser gueldenstaedtii as a multiple cell donor and sterlet Acipenser ruthenus as the non-enucleated egg recipient, we obtained higher proportion of eggs developing into embryos than previously reported with single-SCNT. Molecular data showed the production of a specimen (0.8%) contained only the donor genome with no contribution from the recipient, while two specimens (1.6%) showed both recipient and donor genome. These findings are the first report of donor DNA integration into a sturgeon embryo after interspecific cloning. In all, we provide evidence that cloning with the multiple donor somatic cells can be feasible in the future. Despite the fact that the sturgeon cloning faces limitations, to date it is the most promising technique for their preservation.

Mots clés: foetal development; nuclear transfer; somatic cell; species threatened with extinction; fish; cell cloning

Mots clés: poisson; acipenseridae; esturgeon commun; conservation des espèces; espèce en danger; oeuf de poisson; histologie; méthode de clonage; clonage cellulaire; reprogrammation; reproduction; transfert nucléaire; développement embryonnaire; cellule somatique

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Effrosyni Fatira, Miloš Havelka, Catherine Labbé, Alexandra Depince, Martin Pšenička, et al.. A newly developed cloning technique in sturgeons; an important step towards recovering endangered species. Scientific Reports, 2019, 9 (10453), pp.1-11. ⟨10.1038/s41598-019-46892-4⟩. ⟨hal-02264924⟩