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Several mammal species of ecological interest in our country boast some category of risk or danger of extinction. With the purpose of guarding the genetic information of these species, researchers have developed techniques of ex situ conservation, which are key components of global conservation programs that contribute for the storage of the genome. This storage is carried out through the collection of cells and tissues embedded in germplasm banks, which are the most efficient solution to the critical panorama of the threatened wild fauna. In the present work, for the very first time in Mexico, epithelial (keratinocytes) and connective tissue (fibroblasts) cells were derived in culture on day 28, from Ovis canadensis mexicana after 54 days thawed skin tissue, to create a germplasm bank. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effect of sequential human medium use in the production of blastocysts of female Ovis canadensis mexicana by interspecies handmade cloning. Faced to the notable problem that a significant number of world wild species are endangered, some biotechnologies such as the interspecific somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), have been applied to raise their reproduction and conservation. This technology has been successfully applied by producing embryos and live offspring in some of these species. However, the interspecific SCNT still has to solve problems such as the low embryo production and offspring survival rates (3-6%). These problems, among others, involve a high incidence of embryo fragmentation and in order to solve them, most studies are now aimed to determine the effect of different culture media or supplements used for in vitro embryo production. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to use a variant of the interspecific SCNT technique (Handmade cloning-HMC) for embryo production, determining the effect of human sequential media in the endangered Mexican wild sheep O. c. mexicana. Results indicate that the embryo production increased when using human sequential media, allowing the embryos to reach the blastocyst stage (16% vs. 0%, P < 0.05). This is the first study that reports the successful cloning of female O. c. Mexicana embryos in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]