I understand that Dolly the Sheep was created without the presence of a sperm cell. Instead, nucleus DNA from somatic cells of adult sheep were used. Since Dolly was female, i am assuming that the nucleus DNA used came from a female sheep. So, i want to know if the sex of the resulting clone is determined by the sex of the donor animal. Also, in light of the science behind sex determination in clones, would it be theoretically possible to create a male clone where a single woman contributes both the egg and somatic cells used in the cloning process?
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1$\begingroup$ AFAIK, mammals use sex chromosomes to determine male vs female, with males carrying a copy of the Y chromosome. It is possible to have a male with 1 Y and 2 chromosomes. So, i would guess that if you took a female embryo and microinjected a Y chromosome into the embryo at the single-cell stage, it MIGHT develop into a male. $\endgroup$– user137Commented Jun 21, 2018 at 13:52
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$\begingroup$ is there any research that has been done on this topic? $\endgroup$– raaaayCommented Jun 22, 2018 at 7:52
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$\begingroup$ I guess not specifically on creating male clones from females, but there have been IVF embyros created using 3 "parents", where one person provided healthy mitochondria to replace the mother's faulty mitochondria. $\endgroup$– user137Commented Jun 26, 2018 at 5:56
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$\begingroup$ Maybe some of you could see this and I don't have to ask the question (something stressful to do in StackExchange): would it be possible to clone a female mammal from a male one, the female having two copies of the X chromossome from its male donor? If so, barring mutations, wouldn't the offspring of these be, "in a sense", like "clones" of their parents? I wonder what would happen if this pattern of mating would continue through generations. Assuming an eugenic mammal was the original male donor, I think this could help discover any "bugs" in the eugenics process by exacerbating them? $\endgroup$– DaviCommented Aug 19, 2020 at 22:48
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So, i want to know if the sex of the resulting clone is determined by the sex of the donor animal.
Generally yes for mammals and birds. In animals where the sex is determined by sex chromosomes, the sex of the clone will be dependent by the sex of the donor.
In animals (ie turtles and crocodiles) where the sex is determined by external factors (ie temperature), then the sex of clones will not be dependent on its donor.
would it be theoretically possible to create a male clone where a single woman contributes both the egg and somatic cells used in the cloning process?
Short answer is No.
Sex in mammals and thus humans is dependent on presence or absence of the Y chromosome. If the Y Chromosome is present, the mammal is male. If absent the mammal is female. So a woman does not have the Y chromosome. Hence it is not possible to create a male from her genetic material.
Longer answer... anything is possible. A woman does not have a Y chromosome, so if you added a Y chromosome to one of her ES cells and then used those cells to form the inner cell mass of a blastocyst, then yes you can get a male.
