Clinton L. answered • 04/09/23
Botany Tutor with Expertise in Plant Sciences
Dolly the sheep was cloned via a process known as somatic cell nuclear transfer, and she ultimately resembled the sheep that provided the udder cell. (SCNT). In this procedure, an enucleated egg cell is given the nucleus of an adult somatic cell (in Dolly's case, an udder cell) and is then induced to divide and form an embryo.
The donor egg cell's mitochondrial DNA, which is found in the cytoplasm outside the nucleus, persisted even after the udder cell's nucleus was put into the enucleated egg cell. Since mitochondria have their own DNA, the resultant embryo will receive the egg cell donor's mitochondrial DNA. Although mitochondrial DNA can affect several features, including metabolism and energy generation, it is not a big factor in determining how an organism looks.
Therefore, even though Dolly's nuclear DNA originated from the donor of udder cells, the expression of genes in that nuclear DNA had an impact on how she looked. Numerous genes combine to form an organism's physical appearance, and a range of factors, including the environment and epigenetic changes, can affect how these genes are expressed. Dolly's physical characteristics were determined by the genes in the udder cell donor's nucleus, while the effect of the egg cell donor's mitochondrial DNA was restricted to non-physical characteristics.
