[Jedd]

That's some excellent context, thank you.

I recall when Dolly was in the news, but only understood the broad strokes of the process. I did scan through that page for 'stem', and found a reference to future research, and noted the replication from an 'adult cell' (which I'd assume analogous to differentiated cell).

I'd guess the transfer process is why she arrived with shorter telomeres at birth?

[snystrom]

> 'adult cell' (which I'd assume analogous to differentiated cell)

That's correct.

> I'd guess the transfer process is why she arrived with shorter telomeres at birth?

Also spot on. The donor somatic cell likely had shortened telomeres, resulting in shorter length in the embryo. It's kind of an interesting research question, because telomere length gets "restored" for germ cells (otherwise every time an organism produced sperm/eggs the telomeres would shorten), and these types of experiments demonstrate that there is a limit to that restorative process.