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Since The Government Information Disclosure Regulations took effect, people's application for the access to the government financial information has attracted wide attention and aroused lots of public responses. These actions, which are done in the name of individuals and carry symbolic value rather than having direct and immediate consequences, are mainly a test of the effect of the above mentioned regulations, putting pressure on the government and its officials to enhance the openness of its information. The symbolic nature of these actions indicates that there are great barriers to publicizing government information; embodies the strategies and multiple appeals of the applicants; and also has multiple meanings of expressing civil rights, pinpointing the government accountability and regulating the relations between government and citizens. In the process of applying for the disclosure of government information, citizens have enough incentive to push for the openness of government information, and the application practice of citizens also promotes institutional change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) has great potential for agricultural applications, generation of medical model animals, transgenic farm animals or generating human embryonic stem cells for treatment of human diseases. Cloned animals derived from somatic cells have been generated in several mammal species, but there are still some unsolved problems with current cloning technology, for example, the low efficiency of animal cloning and the abnormal development of cloned animals. One critical factor of these developmental failures of cloned embryos is the aberrant epigenetic reprogramming. This review focuses on DNA methylation and histone modifications and the relationship between these two epigenetic modifications and the development of cloned embryos. Understanding the mechanisms of epigenetic regulation will be useful to solve the technical problems of SCNT and enable better applications of this technology.

Following the production of cloned sheep, mice, goats, pigs, cats, rabbits and argali from somatic cells, the cellular and molecular biological tests of cloned animals and early embryos turn to be more important. In this review, chromosome analysis, nuclear DNA analysis, mitochondrial DNA analysis and telomeric DNA analysis that are applied in the detection of cloned mammal and early embryos are described.

It is the point at issue in intraspecies nuclear transfer whether quiescence is necessary for development of nuclear transfer reconstructed embryos. In the interspecies nuclear transfer, some reports have proved that quiescent cell is able to support preimplantation development of the interspecies reconstructed embryos. Are non-quiescent cells able to support preimplantation development of the interspecies reconstructed embryos? We used non-quiescent somatic cells from C57BL/6 mice and giant pandas as donors to transfer into enucleated rabbit oocytes. After electrofusion (the electrofusion rates were 62.2% and 71.6%, respectively) and electrical activation, 5.1% of those mouse-rabbit reconstructed embryos developed to blastocyst in vitro, and 4.2% of panda-rabbit reconstructed embryos developed to blastocyst after transferring into ligated rabbit oviduct. These results indicate that non-quiescent cell from C57BL/6 mouse and giant panda could be dedifferentiated in enucleated rabbit oocytes and support early embryo development.