Birth of African Wildcat cloned kittens born from domestic cats

This study reported the successful cloning of an endangered small felid by somatic cell nuclear transfer using domestic cats as oocyte donors and surrogate mothers. Researchers transferred nuclei from African wildcat fibroblasts into enucleated domestic cat eggs, cultured the reconstructed embryos, and transferred them to domestic cat recipients, producing live cloned kittens. The work demonstrated that interspecies nuclear transfer and cross-species embryo transfer could be combined to reproduce a wild felid using a common domestic relative. It became a proof of concept for applying cloning and genome banking to felid conservation, while also highlighting the technical inefficiencies and welfare considerations that have kept cloning a supplemental rather than primary conservation tool.