The Ministry of Technology and Science said Wednesday that a research team led by Prof. Kong Il-Keun of the zootechny department of Gyeongsang National University succeeded in cloning cats with modified genes.

Three of the special cats were born in January, two of which survived. This is the world's first successful case of a cat being created through both cell cloning and gene manipulation, although the U.S. succeeded in creating a cat by cloning cells in 2002.

In this photo taken using a special filter, a 10-month old cloned cat with red fluorescent protein (left) shows red and an ordinary cloned cat remains unchanged when they are exposed to ultraviolet rays in a dark room. /Yonhap

The team manipulated genes of Turkish Angora cats to make the skin color red, inserting red fluorescence protein (RFP) into the skin tissue. RFP makes the skin color take on a hue of red that is distinguishable not in visible rays but in ultraviolet rays. The researchers fused the modified skin cells with an egg cell without a nucleus, producing cloned cats with modified genes.

“Since cats suffer some 250 genetic diseases that are similar to human diseases, the genetically-modified cats can be used to treat human genetic diseases,” Prof. Kong said. “Due to the color of the red fluorescent protein itself, the gene manipulation will also be useful to identify the functions of genes at each stage of the differentiation of embryonic or adult stem cells.”

(englishnews@chosun.com )