Cloning

Question 1

Name the 2 ways that plants can be cloned

Answer 1

Cuttings

Tissue Culture

Question 2

Describe the process of cloning plants by ‘cuttings’

Answer 2

Gardeners can take cuttings from good parent plants, and then plant them to produce genetically identical copies (clones) of the parent plant.
These plants can be produced quickly and cheaply.

Question 3

What are the steps of ‘cuttings’?

Answer 3

Parent plant
Cuttings are taken with a new bud on
The cuttings are kept in moist conditions until they are ready to plant
Cloned plant

Question 4

Describe the process of cloning plants by ‘Tissue Culture’

Answer 4

1) This is where a few plant cells are put in a growth medium with hormone and they grow into new plant - clones of the parent plant
2) These plants can be made very quickly, in very little space, and be grown all year

Question 5

Why do you use to make animal clones?

Answer 5

Embryo transplants

Question 6

Describe the process of ‘embryo transplants ‘

Answer 6

1) Sperm cells are taken from a prize bull and egg cells are taken from a prize cow. The sperm are then used to artificially fertilise an egg cell. The embryo that develops is then split many times before any cells become specialised.
2) These cloned embryos can then be implanted into lots of other cows where they grow into calves (which will all be genetically identical)

Question 7

What is a more controversial way to make a live animal clone?

Answer 7

Adult cell cloning

Question 8

Describe the process of adult cell cloning

Answer 8

1) It involves taking an unfertilised egg cell and removing its genetic material (the nucleus)
2) A complete set of chromosomes from an adult body cell is inserted into the ‘empty’ egg cell
3) The egg cell is the stimulated by an electric shock - this makes it divide, just like a normal embryo
4) 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

Question 9

What are some issues with cloning?

Answer 9

1) You get a ‘reduced gene pool’ - this means there are fewer different alleles in a population.
2) Cloned animals might not be as healthy as normal ones
3) Worry about future human cloning and unsuccessful attempts

Question 10

Why is a reduced gene pool bad?

Answer 10

If a population are all closely related and a new disease appears, they could all be wiped out - there may be no allel in the population giving resistance to disease

Question 11

What are the advantages of cloning?

Answer 11

1) get you lots of ‘ideal’ offspring - quickly
2) The study of animal clones could lead to a greater understanding of the development of the embryo, of ageing and age-related disorders
3) Cloning could also be used to preserve endangered species