Abstract:

Most cloned animals by nuclear transfer were dead before their births, and only a few can develop to their late gestation or adulthood. Although some cloned offsprings can survive, they often have some development disfigurements and abnormal phenotypes in various degrees. DNA methylation is an important modifiable manner of epigenetic dominating the correct expression of gene. It is a main instrument of regulating genome function and plays a prominent part in the embryonic normal development. Through researching the pattern of DNA methylation, we found that there were many abnormal DNA methylation patterns in cloned animals, which might be the primary reasons for inducing premature death of cloned embryos and development abnormalities of cloned animals. This article discusses the function of DNA methylation, the aberrant DNA methylation patterns in cloned animals, and the reasons of inducing abnormal DNA methylation in cloned animals.