US scientists create mice with two fathers

US scientists have used stem cell technology to create mice from two fathers, an advance that they say could help preserve endangered species.

The finding could also assist same-sex couples to have their own genetic children one day.

According to the study published in Biology of Reproduction, reproductive scientists in Texas were able to manipulate cells from a male (XY) mouse fetus to produce an induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell line.

These iPS cells are adult cells that have undergone some genetic reprogramming in order to enter an embryonic stem cell-like state.

Some of the cells that were grown from this new line spontaneously lost their Y chromosome, turning them into XO cells.

Those XO cells were injected into embryos from donor female mice and transplanted into surrogate mouse mums who gave birth to babies with one X chromosome from the original male mouse.

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Gee, I know some Thai gals that have done that on more than one occasion.

So what has happened is that some scientist has corrupted some cells from a male donor, mixing in some parts from another male donor.

But still this corruption has to be injected into a cell from a female donor, and then the derived egg still has to be carried by a female surrogate.

Or that is my reading of this.

What is going to come out - if anything?

Surely this is not science, just mix-and-match experimentation for no good purpose.