Cloning for preservation

Injaz, meaning achievement, quite fittingly became one of the UAE's greatest achievements of 2009. Injaz is of course the world's first cloned camel. The female calf was born in April this year at the Camel Reproduction Centre (CRC) near Dubai.

She was produced from cumulus cells harvested from the ovary of an adult camel, which were grown in culture before being frozen in liquid nitrogen. The team at the centre, headed by Dr. Lulu Skidmore and Dr. Ali Redha, said the camel was born after an uncomplicated gestation period of 378 days.

The cloning process was another first for the centre and a significant milestone for the UAE in the field of science and technology.

Dr. Nisar Ahmad Wani, Senior Reproductive Biologist, CRC, produced Injaz by injecting one of the adult cells into a camel oocyte (immature ovum or egg cell) from which the nucleus had been removed. The oocyte and the adult cell were then fused with a tiny split-second electrical pulse and chemically activated to induce them to start dividing just like a normal fertilised egg.

The resulting embryo was cultured for seven days in the laboratory before it was transferred back into the uterus of a surrogate camel. Pregnancy was diagnosed 20 days later by ultrasound and monitored thereafter.

The DNA of Injaz's cells and that of the original ovarian cells were tested using microsatellite DNA analysis at the Molecular Biology and Genetics Laboratory in Dubai. They were found to be identical, proving that Injaz is a clone of the original female camel.

In April, Dr. Skidmore, Scientific Director, CRC, said, "The birth of Injaz is a great achievement for the laboratory as she is the result of great skill and teamwork. Obviously the ethics of cloning are always going to be brought into question but we have achieved a very important breakthrough because cloning allows us to preserve the genetics of the species. If a racing camel, or a milk-producing camel, gets too old or injured it can be very difficult for them to breed, so cloning provides a way of saving the species [from extinction]. Our research programme at the CRC gives a means of preserving the valuable genetics of our elite racing and milk-producing camels in the future. Injaz, who is 30 kilos, seems to be happy and is doing all the right things so far."

The project was initiated by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

The CRC, which was established in 1989, not only breeds camels, but carries out genetic studies on old and new-world camelids. The centre collects and transfers fresh and frozen/thawed embryos and carries out artificial insemination with fresh or frozen semen. It is now the main camel reproduction research centre throughout the UAE.

The centre had another success in 2008 when identical twin camel calves, Zahi and Bahi, were born in Dubai.