South Korean scientists have cloned cats by manipulating a fluorescent protein gene, a procedure that could help develop treatments for human genetic diseases.

As part of the procedure’s side effects, the cloned cats glow in the dark when exposed to ultraviolet beams.

The Ministry of Science and Technology said yesterday,

"It marked the first time in the world that cats with RFP genes have been cloned. The ability to produce cloned cats with the manipulated genes is significant as it could be used for developing treatments for genetic diseases and for reproducing model [cloned] animals suffering from the same diseases as humans."