Cloning

• Cloning in plants-

  • Uses ASEXUAL reproduction so because the clone is GENETICALLY IDENTICAL (we know its characteristics)
  • (if seeds were used from sexual offspring then all plants would be different)
• Cloning in plant method 1. (cuttings)

  • take cuttings and the end is dipped in ROOTING POWDER which contain PLANT HORMONES and plant grows roots
  • cuttings produce a GENETICALLY IDENTICAL clone
  • best for if needing only a FEW clones
• Cloning in plant method 2. (Tissue-culture)

  • good for HUNDREDS of clones
  • take ideal plant and divide the plant into lots of tiny pieces
  • each piece contains cells
  • these cells are INCUBATED with PLANT HORMONES - stimulating plant to grow and become a clone
  • conditions must be sterile for this
  • used to preserve rare species of plants
• Cloning animals - (embryo transplants)

  • Start with sperm/egg cell from ideal animal with characteristics you want
  • fertilise them and it will develop into an EARLY STAGE embryo and these cells have NOT started to SPECIALISE yet
  • split that embryo into 2
  • transplant the two embryos into two host mothers
  • produce two IDENTICAL offspring (clones)
• Disadvantage of embryo transplants -

  • because it starts with sperm/egg we aren’t CERTAIN we will get the ideal characteristics that we want due to variation
  • solution- use ADULT-CELL CLONING because we know exactly what characteristics we will get
• Cloning animals - ( adult-cell cloning)

  • remove cell from ideal adult animal
  • remove nucleus from cell (contains genetic info)
  • Next take an UNFERTILISED EGG from the same species
  • remove nucleus from that egg and it now contains no genetic material
  • insert nucleus from adult cell
  • give egg ELECTRIC SHOCK so the cell divides to form an embryo
  • inserted into adult female host and births clone
• adult-cell cloning +

  • because cloning from adult we know the characteristics it will have rather than cloning from a sperm/egg where it is uncertain