Chinese researchers using gene editing and stem cell technology say they've bred healthy mice using two mothers — with no male mouse. The baby mice were healthy and developed well enough to go on to have normal offspring of their own. The results, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell on Thursday, suggest some barriers to same-sex reproduction can be overcome with stem cells and targeted gene editing. "To consider exploring similar technology for human application in the near future is implausible," said Dusko Ilic, a stem cell specialist at King's College London who was asked to comment on the Chinese results. Making mice from two fathers was more complicated, the researchers said, and involved modifying haploid ESCs containing only a male parent's DNA to delete seven key imprinted regions.

Source: CBC News October 12, 2018 13:17 UTC