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Asexual reproduction
- Plants can make identical copies (clones) of themselves
- Many plants have ways of increasing their numbers by asexual reproduction
- For example a potato plant can produce many tubers, each of which can grow into a new plant
- Artificially produce new plants by taking a cutting, and waiting for the cutting to develop new roots and leaves
The stages of cloning
In 1996 the first large animal was cloned. It was called Dolly, the sheep. Many attempts had been made before the stages of cloning were properly understood. The stages include:
- Removal of diploid nucleus from a body cell
- Enucleation, or removal, of egg cell
- Insertion of diploid nucleus into enucleated egg cell
- Stimulation of the diploid nucleus to divide by mitosis
How to clone cows using embryo transplants
Ethical issues about cloning
- Animal cloning raises ethical issues about how far humans should be allowed to interfere in the production of new life
- Regulations currently restrict scientific research into human cloning
Advantages of cloning
- All the new organisms are genetically identical ---> they will all have the desired characteristics
- Organisms that are difficult or slow to breed normally can be reproduced quickly
Disadvantages of cloning
- If a clone is susceptible to disease or changes in environment, then all the clones will be susceptible
- Lead to less variation, and less opportunity to create new varieties in the future
That's the end of today's topic!
Drafted by Yoshi (Biology)
Reference:
1. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mushtak-Al-Ouqaili/post/How-Dolly-Sheep-was-cloned/attachment/5ac78bb0b53d2f63c3c445ff/AS%3A612433211162624%401523026864130/image/Dolly-clone-sheep-1024.gif
2. https://tunza.eco-generation.org/file/Embryo-Transfer-credit-BBC.gif