Cloning

• Adult cell cloning;

  1. Take an egg cell from a donor female and remove the nucleus, so that it is an enucleated egg cell.
  2. Take an adult body cell (e.g. skin cell) from the organism that you wan to clone, and remove the nucleus.
  3. Put the nucleus from the adult body cell into the enucleated egg cell.
  4. Stimulate the cell via electric shock so it can divide by mitosis to form and embryo.
  5. Place the embryo into the uterus of a surrugate mother. Once it is born it will be a clone on the organism which the nucleus was used from.
• Embryo transplants;

  1. Sperm and egg cell from parents with desirable features are obtained.
  2. In a lab they are fertilised to form a zygote.
  3. The zygote will divide by mitosis into an embryo.
  4. The embryo will be separated into single cells (smaller embryos).
  5. Each cell will be inserted into a different surragate mother.
  6. Each offspring which is born will be genetically identical as they have the same genetic information from the mother and father.
• However, for embryo transplant cloning we don't know if the offspring will have the desirable characteristics until they are born.
• Cuttings for plants;

  1. Cut of a smal part of the plant ensuring that there are meristems.
  2. Place the cutting in some soil, with nutrients and rooting powder and cover with plastic bag to reduce the loss of water.
  3. Let the cutting grow and it will become a clone.
• Tissue culture cloning from plants;

  1. Take/ scrape pieces of plant tissue from tips of stems, so there are meristems.
  2. Place small pieces of tissue into an agar plate, which has a growth hormones and nutrients, and let them grow to form little plants.
  3. Transfer the small plants into soil so they can grow.
• Benefits of cloning;

  • Produces lots of offspring with desirable trait.
  • Can help endangered species.
• Risks of cloning;

  • Gene pool is reduced, so population is less likely to survive if there is a disease which affects them.