Cloning Animals

• Animals can be cloned by embryo transplants and adult cell cloning.
• Embryo transplants involve fertilization of a sperm and an egg cell from horses, resulting in a fertilized egg which is then allowed to develop into an early stage embryo.
• The cells in the embryo must not have started to specialize, meaning none of these cells must have started to change into any specific cell type.
• In embryo transplants, a glass rod is used to split the embryo into two, and the two embryos are then transplanted into host mothers.
• The embryos will then grow undeveloped and when these animals are born, two identical offspring, or clones, are produced.
• The problem with embryo transplants is that the offspring's characteristics cannot be certain as they start with sperm and an egg.
• Adult cell cloning can be used to overcome this problem by cloning from an adult, ensuring the characteristics of the clone.
• In adult cell cloning, a cell from the animal that is to be cloned, such as a skin cell, is removed and the nucleus is removed from this cell.
• An unfertilized egg cell from the same species, in this case, a female sheep, is then removed the nucleus from and thrown away, leaving the egg cell empty of genetic material.
• The nucleus from the original adult body cell is then inserted into the empty egg cell, which now contains only genetic information from the animal that is being cloned.
• The egg cell is then inserted into the womb of an adult female to continue its development.
• The host mother then gives birth to the clone, which looks nothing like the host mother as it contains none of her genetic material.