Science - Cloning

Cloning

  • A clone is an organism that was made by exactly copying the genetic sequence of another organism. Cloning occurs in nature. Examples of natural cloning include mitosis and banana plants.
  • Types of cloning:
    • Nuclear Transfer Cloning:
      • Somatic: any cell that is not a sperm or egg.
      • The nucleus of one somatic cell and egg cell is taken out and the somatic cell’s nucleus is implanted into the egg’s empty space where its nucleus used to be
      • Eventually the egg begins to divide (this does not always happen, and is why Nuclear Transfer Cloning is not very efficient), and becomes a full organism
    • Therapeutic Cloning: An embryo is cloned in the normal way, but instead of letting it develop into a fetus/organism, it’s interrupted at the blastocyst stage (when it’s still just a ball of cells) and used to repair cellular damage to a patient.
      • This is useful because the cells in a blastocyst are “stem cells”: they have not yet differentiated, so they can become any kind of tissue needed.
      • Therapeutic

Dolly the Sheep

Dolly the Sheep was the first ever mammal to be cloned
  • 1/400 attempts successful
  • around 300 embryos used
  • Dolly died at 6 years old (most sheep die at around 12) due to a lung disease, NOT cloning
  • First step towards human cloning
  • Cloning the best cattle for meat and milk production
  • Embryonic stem cells for medical use
  • Clones as “spare parts” for humans
  • Negatively affected stem cell research by association
  • Cloning research moved to countries with less restrictions (Such as China and Japan)
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Pranav Sharma
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UNSW Student, site owner and developer.

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