Artificial Plant Cloning

Question 1

What are cuttings in artificial plant cloning?

Answer 1

cut a bitt of a plant and grow that somewhere else - get a genetically identical plant

Question 2

What is the process of cuttings in artificial plant cloning?

Answer 2

1) You need to remove a growing region of the plant - root tip, shoot tip or young leaf
2) Clean cut through xylem and phloem e.g. sharp scissors
3) Apply a rooting powder to cut end - containing plant hormone auxin e.g. IAA
4) Transfer to soil
5) Control conditions / enviroment - still fragile e.g. propagator / greenhouse
6) roots and shoots start to develop

Question 3

What are the advantages and disadvantages of cuttings in artificial plant cloning?

Answer 3

offspring genetically identical
cuttings are easy
it is fast
if you want to make loads of copies, it will be labour intensive

Question 4

What is the process tissue culture in artificial plant cloning?

Answer 4

• take cells / small pieces from a parent plant - from growing regions e.g. root tip / shoot tip
• steralise the cells to kill any microorganisms that are still on them e.g. bleach
• use aseptic technique
• put this on a growth medium e.g. agar plate - contains glucose / amino acids / nitrates, etc.
• adds growth hormones e.g. high auxins and cytokinins
• this forms a massive unspecialised cells called callus
• subdivide callus to make many cells
• change the plant hormone ratio - causes them to form roots and shoots
• transfer it to soil

Question 5

What are the advantages and disadvantages of tissue culture?

Answer 5

offspring all genetically identical
expensive
many thousands of cloves can be made froma signle parent plant