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UNITED NEWS OF INDIA
HYDERABAD, JAN 3: The city-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) will adopt cloning techniques to preserve endangered species such as lions and tigers in the country.
A satellite centre comprising scientifically-designed enclosures to house experimental animals (lions and tigers to begin with) would be set up near the Nehru Zoological Park, near here, as part of a larger conservation effort to preserve the endangered species. The Andhra Pradesh government has allotted five acres of land for this purpose, molecular biologist and CCMB director Lalji Singh told UNI.
Cloning could also be used for the production of pharmaceutical products by engineering the desired gene in a domestic animal such as cow, sheep and goat. The CCMB would provide cloning techniques to produce pharmaceutical products if biotechnology firms showed interest.
He said the programme for scientifically breeding animals was being jointly undertaken by the department of bio-technology, the CCMB and the Central ZooAuthority. Rs five crore has already being sanctioned for the programme.Dr Lalji Singh said a mobile laboratory would become operational within a few months to undertake survey for selecting experimental animals for the programme.
The CCMB had been asked by the Central Zoo Authority to find out the extent of genetic variation in lions and tigers, both in the zoos and in the wild, to identify male and female animals fit for breeding purposes.
In a significant finding, a recent study by the CCMB revealed that the country's dwindling lions have more genetic variability, suggesting an adaptability that would boost their chances for long-term survival.
The CCMB findings contradicted the earlier studies conducted by the United States experts that Indian lions and tigers were highly inbred with no genetic variation and it might become extinct in the near future.
The us experts had assumed that wild lions in the Gir national park in Gujarat, part of the last of the Asiatic lion population, now down to 350,have depleted gene supply after their near extermination early this century.
The CCMB scientists analysed random bits of DNA from 38 lions of known wild origin and found much more genetic diversity than expected -- 26 per cent of the DNA stretches examined varied, on an average, among individual lions.
Dr Lalji Singh said animals which were not highly inbred, not genetically identical and showed genetic variations, have better survival ability.
He said highly inbred animals become genetically identical leading to sterility and ultimate extinction. If there was an outbreak of any infectious disease, animals living in the wild with genetic similarities would be wiped out.
If there was genetic variation in the animal population, in the wild, at least some of them would survive. Genetic variation in animals was important for the survival of the species, he added.
He said one of the most important ways of preserving the endangered species was to create sperm and egg banks, permanent cell lines of theseselected animals, and an in-vitro fertilization facility.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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