Cloning

Methods in which plants and animals can be clones:

  • Cuttings
  • Tissue culture
  • Embryo transplants
  • Adult cell cloning

And the issues surrounding cloning.

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How can cuttings be used to clone plants?
Gardeners can take cuttings from good parent plants, and then plant them to produce genetically identical copies (cloes) of the parents. These plants can be produced quickly and cheaply.
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How can tissue culture be used to clone plants?
A few plants cells are put in a growth medium with hormones, and they grow into new plants - clones of the parent plant. These plants can be made very quickly, in very little space, and be grown all year.
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Describe the first step in embryo transplants to clone animals.
Sperm cells are taken from a prize male (e.g. bull) and egg cells are taken from a prize female (e.g. cow).
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Describe the second step in embryo transplants to clone animals.
The sperm are then used to artificially fertilise an egg cell. The embryo that develops is then split many times (to form clones) before any cells become specialised.
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Describe the last step in embryo transplants to clone animals.
These cloned embryos can then be implanted into lots of other cows where they grow into baby calves (which will all be genetically identical to each other).
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What is an advantage of embryo transplants to clone animals?
Hundreds of ideal offspring can be produced every year from the prize males and females.
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What is adult cell cloning (i.e. the first step)?
Adult cell cloning involves taking an unfertilised egg and removing its genetic material (the nucleus). A complete set of chromosomes from an adult body cell is inserted into the 'empty' egg cell.
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Second step in adult cell cloning.
The egg cell is then stimulated by an electric shock, making it divide, just like a normal embryo.
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Last step in adult cell cloning.
When the embryo is a ball of cells, it's implanted into an adult female (the surrogate mother) to grow into a genetically identical copy (clone) of the original adult body cell.
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What is meant by a 'reduced gene pool' (caused by cloning)?
There are fewer different alleles in a population. If a populationn are all closely related and a new disease appears, they could all be wiped out - there may be no allele in the population giving resistance to the disease.
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What is an advantage of the study of animal clones?
It could lead to greater understanding of the development of the embryo, and of ageing and age-related disorders.
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What is another advantage of cloning (of both plants and animals)?
Cloning could also be used to help preserve endangered species.
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What is one disadvantage of cloning animals?
It's possible that cloned animals might not be as healthy as normal ones.
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What is another ethical fault in cloning?
Some people worry that humans might be cloned in the future. If it was allowed, it could result in producing a severely disabled child, for example.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

How can tissue culture be used to clone plants?

Back

A few plants cells are put in a growth medium with hormones, and they grow into new plants - clones of the parent plant. These plants can be made very quickly, in very little space, and be grown all year.

Card 3

Front

Describe the first step in embryo transplants to clone animals.

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

Describe the second step in embryo transplants to clone animals.

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

Describe the last step in embryo transplants to clone animals.

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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