A total of 611 reconstructed oocytes were produced via SCNT
using ATM gene-targeted fetal fibroblasts. These cloned embryos
were surgically transferred to five surrogate gilts. Early pregnan-
cies were observed in three gilts, and two ultimately went to full
term. Five cloned piglets were delivered, four from one surrogate
and one from the other (
Fig. 3
). To confirm whether the cloned pig-
lets were derived from the nuclear donor cells, genomic DNA
extracted from tail biopsies was screened by PCR and Southern
blot. As shown in
Fig. 4
, all piglets contained one allele of the
ATM gene disrupted by PGK-Neo, resulting in an increased size
of ATM gene fragment in PCR and in Southern blot