Korean scientists have cloned three female dogs, the world’s first after the male hound Snuppy. The team says the success rate in terms of births to implanted embryos is more than thirty times that for Snuppy, who is credited to the disgraced geneticist Hwang Woo-suk.

A team of Seoul National University veterinarians led by Lee Byeong-chun and Kim Dae-yong said Sunday the cloned female dog Bona was born on June 18 this year via somatic cell nuclear transfer, the same technology used for Snuppy, by using cells taken from an adult female dog's ear.

The world's first cloned female dogs Bona, Peace and Hope, produced by cloning skin cells of an adult female Afghan Hound.

In somatic cell nuclear transfer, an egg whose nucleus has been removed is combined with a somatic cell nucleus and implanted in the uterus of a surrogate mother. Cloned dogs produced this way are genetically identical to the donor dog of the somatic cell. The achievement brings the age when owners can have their pet replaced with an identical clone a step closer.

After Bona -- or “blessings” in Latin -- two other female cloned dogs named Peace and Hope were born on July 10 and 15.

Prof. Lee said the team compared DNA samples taken from the donor dog and those from Bona, Peace and Hope and confirmed that they were all genetically identical. He pointed out that the success rate rose from 0.8 percent in the effort to produce Snuppy to some 25 percent, the highest in the world. The achievement confirms Korea’s first-rate animal cloning techniques since no other country has yet managed to clone a dog.

The team used skin cells from a two-month old, cream-colored female Afghan Hound named Jessica and implanted them in the uterus of other dogs. The achievement is documented in latest online edition of international animal reproduction journal Theriogenology.

Lee has been implicated in Hwang’s faking of stem cell studies published in Science in 2004 and 2005 and was suspended for three months by an SNU disciplinary panel this July. Lee publicly severed ties with Hwang at the time and returned to work when his suspension ended on Oct. 31. Lee is also in the midst of a criminal trial for fabricating the research data and embezzling research funds. If he is found guilty and jailed, he stands to lose his job.

He owes his reinstatement to his remarkable work in canine cloning technology. SNU says the dog cloning project was carried out by Lee, independently of Hwang. "We will offer Lee active support because the research could bring about significant profit," a university official said. SNU hopes to commercialize the results.

(englishnews@chosun.com )