M6:S5 Cloning and biotechnology

• Plant cloning


  The process of producing genetically identical cells or organisms from the cells of an existing organism
• Vegetative propagation


  • The production of plant clones from non-reproductive tissues, e.g. roots, leaves and stems
• Natural vegetative propagation methods

  • Rhizomes
  • Stolons
  • Suckers
  • Tubers
  • Bulbs
• Growing plants from cuttings


  1. Take cutting from parent plant

  2. Remove leaves from lower end

  3. Dip lower end in rooting powder

  4. Plant cutting in growth medium

  5. Provide warm and moist environment
• Tissue culture

  Technique used to artificially clone plants from existing plants
• Tissue culture process


  1. Cells taken from original plant

  2. Cells from stem and root tips used

  3. Cells sterilised

  4. Cells placed on culture medium with nutrients and growth hormones

  5. Cells grow into small plant

  6. Small plant planted in soil
• Micropropagation


  Using tissue culture to produce large numbers of cloned plants quickly
• Arguments for artificial plant cloning

  • Desirable genetic characteristics always passed on
  • Plants can be reproduced in any season
  • Less space required
  • Produces plants quickly
• Plant cloning


  The process of producing genetically identical cells or organisms from the cells of an existing organism
• Vegetative propagation


  • The production of plant clones from non-reproductive tissues, e.g. roots, leaves and stems
• Natural vegetative propagation methods

  • Rhizomes
  • Stolons
  • Suckers
  • Tubers
  • Bulbs
• Growing plants from cuttings


  1. Take cutting from parent plant

  2. Remove leaves from lower end

  3. Dip lower end in rooting powder

  4. Plant cutting in growth medium

  5. Provide warm and moist environment
• Tissue culture


  Technique used to artificially clone plants from existing plants
• Tissue culture process


  1. Cells taken from original plant

  2. Cells from stem and root tips used

  3. Cells sterilised

  4. Cells placed on culture medium with nutrients and growth hormones

  5. Grown into small plant

  6. Planted in soil
• Micropropagation


  Using tissue culture to produce large numbers of cloned plants quickly
• Arguments for artificial plant cloning

  • Desirable genetic characteristics always passed on
  • Can reproduce in any season
  • Less space required
  • Produces plants quickly
• Arguments against artificial plant cloning

  • Undesirable genetic characteristics always passed on
  • No genetic variability in cloned populations
  • High production costs
  • Risk of contamination
• Natural animal clones


  Occur when a fertilised egg splits during early development to form multiple genetically identical embryos
• Artificial embryo twinning


  1. Fertilised egg divided and individual cells separated to form multiple embryos

  2. Embryos implanted into surrogate mothers
• Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT)


  1. Somatic cell nucleus extracted and inserted into enucleated oocyte

  2. Nucleus and oocyte fused and stimulated to divide

  3. Embryo implanted into surrogate mother
• Uses of animal cloning

  • Research purposes
  • Saving endangered species
  • Increasing desirable agricultural traits
  • Producing genetically modified animals
• Embryonic stem cells


  Cells harvested from young embryos that have potential to become any cell type
• Arguments for animal cloning

  • Desirable genetic characteristics passed on
  • Reproducing infertile animals
  • Preserving endangered species
  • Cloning at any time
  • Developing new medical treatments
• Arguments against animal cloning

  • Difficulty, time and expense
  • No genetic variability, susceptibility to disease
  • Shorter lifespan of clones
  • Ethical concerns over using embryos
• The population of endangered species helps to preserve biodiversity
• Animals can be cloned at any time you wouldn't have to wait until a breeding season to get new animals
• Cloning can help us develop new treatments for disease, which could mean less suffering for some people
• Animal cloning is very difficult, time-consuming and expensive
• There's no genetic variability in cloned populations, so undesirable genetic characteristics (e.g. a weak immune system) are always passed on to clones. This means that all of the cloned animals in a population are susceptible to the same diseases. Potentially, a single disease could wipe them all out
• Some evidence suggests that clones may not live as long as natural offspring. Some think this is unethical
• Using cloned human embryos as a source of stem cells is controversial. The embryos are usually destroyed after the embryonic stem cells have been harvested-some people believe that doing this is destroying a human life
• you cloned yourself, you could be relaxing while the other you revised...
• Unfortunately, that's not going to happen, so you should just get on with learning about how the different types of animal cloning are carried out, how cloning in animals is actually used and the arguments for and against it
• Biotechnology is the Use of Living Organisms in Industry
• Biotechnology is the industrial use of living organisms to produce food, drugs and other products
• The living organisms used are mostly microorganisms (bacteria and fungi)
• Microorganisms


  • Their ideal growth conditions can be easily created-microorganisms will generally grow successfully as long as they have the right nutrients, temperature, pH, moisture levels and availability of gases (e.g. some need oxygen)
  • Because of their short life-cycle, they grow rapidly under the right conditions, so products can be made quickly
  • They can be grown on a range of inexpensive materials-this makes them economical to use
  • They can be grown at any time of the year
• Biotechnology also uses parts of living organisms (such as enzymes) to make products
• Intracellular enzymes


  Enzymes used in industry that are contained within the cells of organisms
• Isolated enzymes


  Enzymes used in industry that aren't contained within cells