A novel method of somatic cell nuclear transfer with minimum equipment

Abstract

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is an exceptional experimental biology technique with an arguably great contribution to our current understanding of developmental plasticity. Many students and young researchers are interested in taking advantage of SCNT virtues in their experiments but the cost of micromanipulation microscopes, intensive training programs, and also the sophisticated process of SCNT may dissuade them from entering this amazing field of science. Here, we describe the details of a streamlined manual method of SCNT that can be performed using very basic equipment found in every embryology laboratory: the Pasteur pipette and stereomicroscope. The overall method introduced is very simple and a person with no previous experience in cloning can learn and adopt the basic routines of this technique independently.