Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 August 2007
The black muntjac (Muntiacus crinifrons) is a critically endangered mammalian species, confined to a narrow region of south-eastern China. In the present study, the homogeneous ear fibroblast cells of a black muntjac were respectively cultured in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium (DMEM) (low glucose), DMEM (high glucose) and RPMI-1640. The population doubling time of subcultured cells was not significantly different between the three different media, but cell growth was greater in DMEM (low glucose). The interspecies embryos were reconstructed using the fibroblasts of black muntjac as donors and enucleated goat or rabbit oocytes as recipients and their blastocyst rates were 0 and 11.5%, respectively. The results demonstrated that the two cytoplasts could support reprogramming of the ear fibroblasts of black muntjac, but the developmental potential of the reconstructed embryos was different.
These authors contributed equally to this work.
First published in Journal of Agricultural Biotechnology 2007, 15(2): 228–232