“Ganga”, India’s first cloned cow born in March 2023 belongs to which breed ?
- (1)Sahiwal
- (2)Gir
- (3)Tharparkar
- (4)Nagauri
Answer
Why
Correct — option (2), Gir.
Ganga is a cloned calf of the Gir breed, born on 16 March 2023 at ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal. NDRI's Annual Report 2023 calls her India's first cloned indigenous cow of the Gir breed; her birth weight was 32 kg.
The donor genome came from somatic cells of a superior Gir cow. These were fused with enucleated eggs collected from live Sahiwal cows, and the embryos were transferred into cross-bred recipient cows.
The nucleus, which carries the genes that define the breed, came from the Gir donor, so Ganga is a Gir. The Sahiwal eggs supplied the cytoplasm, including a small amount of mitochondrial DNA.
The idea to remember: a clone takes its breed from the donor of the nucleus; Ganga is a Gir clone.
Why the others are wrong
- (1)Sahiwal — Sahiwal cows took part, but not as the breed of the clone. NDRI collected eggs from live Sahiwal cows with ultrasound-guided needles, and the nuclei of these eggs were removed.
The nucleus put in came from a Gir cow, so Ganga is a Gir. Sahiwal itself is a dairy breed named after the Sahiwal district of Punjab, now in Pakistan.
- (3)Tharparkar — Tharparkar is an indigenous breed named after the Tharparkar district of Sindh, now in Pakistan, and is also reared in western Rajasthan. It was not the donor breed for Ganga.
NDRI's report lists Tharparkar among the indigenous breeds important to India's dairy sector, but Ganga's donor cells came from a Gir cow.
- (4)Nagauri — Nagauri, also spelt Nagori, is a breed of Nagaur district in Rajasthan, kept mainly for its draught bullocks rather than for milk.
It had no part in Ganga's cloning, where the donor cells came from a Gir cow and the eggs from Sahiwal cows.
Concept
Somatic cell nuclear transfer produces an animal genetically identical to a donor. The nucleus of a body (somatic) cell from the donor is placed into, or fused with, an egg whose own nucleus has been removed.
The reconstructed egg is activated and grown in the laboratory to the blastocyst stage, then transferred into a surrogate mother. The calf's nuclear DNA comes from the donor, not from the egg provider or the surrogate.
Dolly the sheep, born in 1996 in Scotland, was the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell.
RPSC's 2024 syllabus lists "Nanotechnology, Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering" and "Agriculture, Horticulture, Forestry and Animal Husbandry with special reference to Rajasthan" under Science & Technology. Cloning indigenous cattle links the two.
NDRI's report points to the low productivity of indigenous cows, 3 to 4 kg of milk a day, and presents cloning as a way to multiply elite animals faster and conserve endangered breeds. It has begun work on cloning Gir, Sahiwal and Red Sindhi cows.
NDRI's own timeline records earlier cloning work: the world's first cloned buffalo calf, produced at the institute in 2009.
Key facts
- Ganga, a cloned Gir calf, was born on 16 March 2023 at ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, with a birth weight of 32 kg.
- Ganga's donor cells came from a Gir cow, the eggs from live Sahiwal cows, and the recipient mothers were cross-bred cows.
- President Droupadi Murmu saw Ganga during her visit to ICAR-NDRI on 24 April 2023.
- NDRI's timeline records that in 2009 it produced the world's first cloned buffalo calf by hand-guided cloning.
- Dolly the sheep, born in 1996 in Scotland, was the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell.
Source: ICAR-NDRI Annual Report 2023. The clone takes its breed from the donor of the nucleus.
Study next
Common traps
- Animals of three kinds took part in Ganga's cloning: Gir donor cells, Sahiwal eggs and cross-bred surrogates. The clone's breed is the donor's, Gir.
- Ganga is described as India's first cloned indigenous cow, not India's first cloned animal: NDRI produced a cloned buffalo calf in 2009.
- Ganga was born at Karnal in Haryana, but her breed is Gir, named after the Gir region of Gujarat. Where a clone is produced says nothing about its breed.
A question can ask the breed or species of a named clone, the institute that produced it, its year of birth, or the cloning technique used. A question can also ask about Dolly the sheep, or match indigenous cattle breeds with their home regions.
Related PYQs
UnlockIAS will link similar questions from RAS Pre 2021 and 2016 here once those papers are published on this site.
Practice
- practice — not a real PYQ
The cloned Gir calf "Ganga", born in March 2023, was produced at
- (a)ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal
- (b)ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Cattle, Meerut
- (c)National Dairy Development Board, Anand
- (d)ICAR-National Bureau of Animal Genetic Resources, Karnal
Answer(1) — Ganga was born at ICAR-NDRI, Karnal, on 16 March 2023. Options (2), (3) and (4) are other livestock institutions; none of them produced Ganga. - practice — not a real PYQ
In cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer, the nuclear DNA of the cloned animal is identical to that of
- (a)the animal that donates the egg
- (b)the surrogate mother that carries the embryo
- (c)the animal that donates the somatic cell
- (d)the father of the egg donor
Answer(3) — The nucleus comes from the donor's somatic cell, so the clone's nuclear DNA matches the donor. Option (1)'s egg has its nucleus removed; option (2)'s surrogate only carries the embryo; option (4) contributes no nucleus.