Adult Cell Cloning

Question 1

When a new whole animal is produced from the cell of another animal what is it known as?

Answer 1

Adult cell cloning.

Question 2

What are the steps involved in adult cell cloning?

Answer 2

1. The nucleus is removed from an unfertilised egg.
2. At the same time the nucleus is taken from an adult body cell, e.g. a skin cell of a another animal of the same species.
3. The nucleus from the adult cell is inserted in the empty egg cell.
4. The new cell is given a tiny electric shock that makes it start dividing to form embryo cells. These contain the same genetic informant as the original adult cell and the original adult animal.
5. When the embryo has developed into a ball of cells it is inserted into the womb of an adult female to continue its development.

Question 3

What are the benefits of adult cell cloning?

Answer 3

Animals that have been genetically engineered to produce useful proteins in their milk can be cloned. This would give us a good way of producing a large number of cloned, medically useful animals.
Could also be used to save animals from extinction, or even bring back a species of animal that dies out years ago.
The technique could also be used to clone pets or prized animals so that they continue even after the original has died.

Question 4

What are the disadvantages of cell cloning?

Answer 4

Many fear it could lead to the cloning of human babies.
Cloning reduces variety in the population. This means the population is less able to survive if anything changes in the environment in the future.
In a more natural population, at least one or two individuals can usually survive change. They go on to reproduce and restock. This could be a problem in the future for cloned crop plants or for cloned farm animals.