OCR A2 Biology F215: Cloning in plants and animals

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Reproductive cloning

  • Is...the production of a new individual with the same genotype as an existing one.

Non-reproductive cloning

  • Is...supplying replacement cells whose genotype matches that of an existing organism.

Cloning of plants

Vegetative propagation

  • Is...a form of natural cloning.
  • The offspring plants are genetically identical to the parent plant. The type of reproduction is asexual - the new cells are produced by mitosis.
  • Many plants have methods of reproducing asexually, by separation of some part of the plant body, which can then develop into a separate plant.
  • E.g. the English Elm - The Elm can be propagated by removing suckers from the tree in the autumn and growing them in a nursery bed. It can also be layered: low growing branches can be pegged down onto the soil in autumn, left until they grow roots and then separated.

Micropropagation

  • Is...an artificial method of cloning.
  • Plant cells are totipotent, and even differentiated cells can divide by mitosis to give other cells.
  • Micropropagation is used commercially to produce plants for sale which are: Difficult to grow from seed, do not have a natural method of asexual reproduction, are desirable hybrids and don't breed true, or have been genetically engineered.

Method:

1. Explants

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