Motherless babies could be on the horizon after scientists discovered a method of creating offspring without the need for a female egg.
The landmark experiment by the University of Bath rewrites 200 years of biology teaching and could pave the way for a baby to be born from the DNA of two men.
It was always thought that only a female egg could spark the changes in a sperm required to make a baby, because an egg forms from a special kind of cell division in which just half the number of chromosomes are carried over.
It may soon be possible for two men to produce offspring using skin cells.
Scientists have found a way for two men to reproduce without the need for any female egg at all.
The groundbreaking discovery was made during an experiment at the University of Bath which involved creating three generations of mice using sperm and skin cells from adult males.
Previously it was believed that a baby could only be made by combining sperm with a female egg, but now it appears as though any cell in the human body can be fertilized by a sperm.
“It has been thought that only an egg cell was capable of reprogramming sperm to allow embryonic development to take place,” said molecular embryologist Dr Tony Perry.
“Our work challenges that dogma, held since early embryologists first observed mammalian eggs in around 1827 and observed fertilisation 50 years later, that only an egg cell fertilised with a sperm cell can result in a live mammalian birth.”
“We’re talking about different ways of making embryos. Imagine that you could take skin cells and make embryos from them. This would have all kinds of utility.”
