Artificial Animal Cloning

Question 1

What two ways can you do artificial animal cloning

Answer 1

1) artificial twinning
2) somatic cell nuclear transfer ( SCNT )

Question 2

Steps of artificial twinning

Answer 2

1) cow with desirable traits treated with hormones so she releases more mature ova than normal

2) ova may be fertilised naturally, or by artificial insemination by a bull with good traits. Early embryos flushed out the uterus

3) or, eggs are removed and fertilised artificially

4) before or around day 6, cells are totipotent, embryo is split to produce several smaller embryos and grown in a lab

5) embryo is placed into surrogate mother and develop into foetuses, born naturally

6) all of the offspring are clones to each other, not the mothers.

Question 3

Steps of somatic cell nuclear transfer

Answer 3

1) nucleus emoted from somatic cell of an adult animal

2) nucleus removed from mature egg from female ( its enucleated)

3) nucleus from somatic cell is placed into enucleated egg cell and uses electrofusion to fuse them together

4) embryo developed is transferred to surrogate mum

5) new animal is a clone of animal from which the somatic cell is derived, although mitochondrial dna comes from egg cell.

Question 4

Advantage of artificial cloning

Answer 4

1- high value animals such as cows with high milk yield can be clones in large numbers

2- rare animals can be cloned to preserve species

3- genetically modified animals for example sheep that produce pharmaceutical chemicals in milk can quickly be reproduced

Question 5

Disadvantage of animal cloning

Answer 5

• high value animals not produced with animal welfare in mind
• excessive genetic uniformity makes it unlikely they would adapt to environment changes
• unclear whether animals cloned using nuclear material will remain healthy in long term