Research Article Developmental Outcome and Related Abnormalities in Goats: Comparison Between Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer- and In Vivo-Derived Concepti During Pregnancy Through Term Leonardo Tondello Martins, 1 Saul Gaude ˆ ncio Neto, 1 Kaio Ce ´ sar Simiano Tavares, 1 Carlos Enrique Me ´ ndez Caldero ´ n, 1 Luis Henrique Aguiar, 1 Cı ´cera Regina Lazzarotto, 1 Felipe Ledur Ongaratto, 1,2 Victor Hugo Vieira Rodrigues, 1 Igor de Sa ´ Carneiro, 1 Rafael Rossetto, 1,3 Anderson Pinto Almeida, 1,3 Ce ´ sar Carneiro Linhares Fernandes, 3 Davide Rondina, 3 Ana Christina Oliveira Dias, 4 Jocelei Maria Chies, 4 Irina A. Polejaeva, 5 Jose ´ Luiz Rodrigues, 2 Fabiana Forell, 6 Luciana Relly Bertolini, 1,7 and Marcelo Bertolini 1,2 Abstract Cloning by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is characterized by low efficiency and the occurrence of developmental abnormalities, which are rather poorly studied phenomena in goats. This study aimed at comparing overall SCNT efficiency in goats by using in vitro-matured (IVM) or in vivo-matured oocytes and fibroblast donor cells (mock transfected, transgenic, or wild type), also characterizing symptoms of the Abnormal Offspring Syndrome (AOS) in development, comparing results with pregnancies produced by artificial insemination (AI) and in vivo-derived (IVD) embryos. The SCNT group had lower pregnancy rate (18.3%, 11/60), total number of concepti (20.0%, 12/60), term births (3.3%, 2/60), and live births (1.7%, 1/60) than both the IVD (77.8%, 7/9; 155.5%, 14/9; 122.2%, 11/9; 88.8%, 8/9) and the AI (71.4%, 10/14; 121.4%, 17/14; 100%, 14/14; 78.5%, 11/14) groups, respectively ( p < 0.05). No SCNT pregnancies reached term using IVM oocytes, but in vivo-matured oocytes resulted in two term transgenic cloned kids. The proportion fetal membrane (FM) weight/birth weight reflected an increase in FM size and cotyledonary enlargement in clones, for disproportionally bigger newborns in relation to cotyledonary numbers. Overall, goat cloning showed losses and abnormality patterns similar to the AOS in cloned cattle and sheep, which have not been previously well recognized in goats. Introduction C loning by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) is a multifunctional tool that is mainly used for the production of genetically identical animals, including genetic preservation and rescue of rare species and breeds or multi- plication of genomes of interest, usually related to the pro- duction of animals of high genetic value (Laible and Wells, 2007; Wells, 2004). However, the generation of genetically modified (GM) animals stands out as one of the most notable cloning applications to date. Nevertheless, despite the in- creasing number of animal species being cloned since the birth of Dolly (Wilmut et al., 1997), the overall cloning ef- ficiency by SCNT has evolved little over the years (Ni et al., 2014; Reggio et al., 2001; Wells et al., 1997). Most problems associated with cloning procedures using somatic cells are still poorly understood (Palmieri et al., 2008; Smith et al., 2012). This scenario may be even more 1 University of Fortaleza (UNIFOR), Fortaleza, Brazil. 2 Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), Porto Alegre, Brazil. 3 Ceara ´ State University (UECE), Fortaleza, Brazil. 4 Quatro G Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Ltda., Porto Alegre, Brazil. 5 Department of Animal, Dairy and Veterinary Sciences, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, USA. 6 Santa Catarina State University (UDESC), Lages, Brazil. 7 Pontificial Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, Brazil. CELLULAR REPROGRAMMING Volume 18, Number 4, 2016 ª Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. DOI: 10.1089/cell.2015.0082 1