Cloning

• Tissue culture is using small groups of cells from part of a plant to grow identical new plants
• Tissue culture is is important for preserving rare plant species or commercially in nurseries
• Cuttings is a method used by gardeners to produce many identical new plants from a parent plant
• Embryo transplants are splitting apart cells from a developing animal embryo before they become specialised, then transplanting the identical embryos into host mothers
• Adult cell cloning:

  • The nucleus is removed from an unfertilised egg cell
  • The nucleus from an adult body cell, such as a skin cell, is inserted into the egg cell
  • An electric shock stimulates the egg cell to divide to form an embryo
  • These embryo cells contain the same genetic information as the adult skin cell
  • When the embryo has developed into a ball of cells, it is inserted into the womb of an adult female to continue its development
• Adult cell cloning