Repeated cloning cannot be sustained indefinitely in mammals, according to a 20-year study in mice published in Nature Communications. The results suggest that sexual reproduction is necessary to eliminate large-scale genetic mutations that can accumulate in mammalian clones. 🧬 🧪
Here they show that extended serial somatic cell cloning imposes a threefold increase in de novo mutations compared to natural reproduction, progressively reducing birth rates and ultimately limiting clonal propagation to 58 generations.
