Question

World's first buffalo clone Samrupa and Garima were developed at
A) NDRI, Karnal
B) IARI, New Delhi
C) IVRI, Izatnagar
D) Rosalind Institute, Scotland

Answer 1

A clone is a cell, a group of cells or an organism that is genetically identical to the cell or the individual from which it is obtained or produced.

Complete answer:
Samrupa is the world's first cloned buffalo calf. Samrupa was considered to be India's answer for Dolly sheep which lived for seven years. However, Samrupa was infected with a lung infection after five days of its birth and died.
Although India has a huge livestock population there is still shortage of feed and fodder. Additionally, the scarcity of the superior quality of animals including buffaloes is low which poses great challenges in relation to the country’s increasing demand for milk. To overcome this, the world's first buffalo clone Samrupa and second clone Garima was produced by “Hand Guided Cloning Technique”.
This technique is simple and a modification of the conventional Cloning technique using which Dolly (cloned sheep). It is beneficial as it requires less time, equipment and skills. In this, the oocytes are isolated from abattoir ovaries and are allowed to mature in vitro and then treated with an enzyme that digest the zona and is then enucleated. Somatic cells are then propagated so that it can be used as a donor nuclei. This donor nuclei is fused with enucleated oocytes and cultured in the laboratory. The resulting embryos are then transferred into buffaloes for production of the clones.

Option A: Samrupa and Garima were produced at National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal.Therefore, this is the correct option.
Option B, C & D: Since Samrupa and Garmia were produced at NDRI, Karnal. This is the incorrect option.

Thus, the correct answer is option (A) NDRI, Karnal.

Additional information:
i) The advantages of this technique is that the calf of desired sex is produced.

ii) It will lead to production of superior germ plasm and help boost the growth rate of milk in India.

Note: The world's first buffalo calf Samrupa was born on February, 6, 2009 which died within 7 days after its birth. Subsequently, the second cloned calf called Garima was born on 6th June, 2009 with the birth weight of 43 kg.