Virgin mouse gives birth after gene-editing experiment, scientists claim

A VIRGIN mouse has given birth to babies that were conceived from an unfertilized egg, as part of a groundbreaking new study.

The experiment, which was conducted by researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, was published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers promoted asexual reproduction in the mouse by altering the DNA in 200 unfertilized eggs.

The team then altered genetic markers which require a genome from a second parent.

This process bypassed the requirements of a sperm cell for reproduction and allowed an egg to grow into an embryo by replicating its own cells.

Around 190 of those embryos were transferred into surrogate mother mice.

The results led to an "immaculate conception" of a litter of mice pups that were genetically-identical clones of their mother.

But of the 190 implanted eggs, only three pups ended up being born, and just one survived.

The research was into parthenogenesis – which is the spontaneous formation of an embryo from an unfertilized egg cell.

Parthenogenesis is not uncommon in the animal world, especially in invertebrates like worms.

But it is very rare in mammals because of genomic imprinting.

When genes undergo imprinting, they often get stamped with an identifier that indicates the parent of origin during the formation of egg and sperm cells.

This genetic stamping plays a pivotal role in the development of an organism and influences which parental genetics are passed down from the mother and father.

In this study, researchers looked at these marked genes in mice and used a gene-editing method known as DNA methylation to see if they could "improve parthenogenetic development."