What is the Process?

A somatic cell is removed from an animal, now typically an adult, and is called the donor cell.

An oocyte is removed from a surrogate mother, and the nucleus is removed.

Scientists remove the nucleus from the donor cell and insert it into the nucleus-less oocyte from the surrogate mother. The donor nucleus can be added in one of two ways:

• Injection with a needle
• or
• Fusion with the help of an electrical current (Note: this requires the somatic cell to be whole)

The electrical current method is more commonly used, as it leaves less room for error. It was also the method used for Dolly the Sheep.

If the oocyte with the donor nucleus takes when re-inserted into the surrogate mother, and is carried to full term, an organism with the exact same DNA as the donor. This is referred to as a clone.