For the first time, mice born to two fathers have grown up and produced offspring, scientists in China have revealed.
The researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University managed to insert two sperm cells – one from each father – into a mouse egg whose nucleus had been removed.
A gene editing technique was then used to reprogram parts of the sperm DNA to allow an embryo to develop – a process called androgenesis.
The embryo, featuring the genetic material from two fathers, was transferred to a female womb and allowed to grow to term.
Finally, the resulting offspring (male) managed to grow to adulthood and become a parent after mating conventionally with a female.
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Earlier this year, another Chinese team got mice with two fathers to grow to adulthood by editing 20 different genes in their stem cells, but the rodents weren’t fertile.
Dr Helen O’Neill, molecular geneticist at the University College London, called the new work a ‘major step forward’.
‘It confirms that genomic imprinting is the main barrier to uniparental reproduction in mammals and shows it can be overcome,’ she told New Scientist.
