Chinese researchers have created healthy mice from two biological moms for the first time. The pups grew to adulthood and even went on to have normal offspring of their own, scientists announced today in the journal Cell Stem Cell. The researchers also produced mice with two dads, but the pups only survived a few days.
Although the reality of biological parenthood for same sex couples in humans is still a ways away, the breakthrough is revealing a path to fertility for same sex parents and showing scientists how to overcome the genetic roadblocks that normally prevent such reproduction from working.
“We revealed some of the most important [DNA] regions that hinder the development of mice with same sex parents,” said Wei Li, a molecular biologist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, who co-led the new study, in a statement.
Researchers have been asking why mammals need two opposite ...
