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How does Cloning work?

Animal Cloning

The unfertilized eggs of some animals can develop into full-grown adults under certain environmental conditions. This process is called parthenogenisis, and the offspring are the clones of the female that laid the eggs.
An example of natural cloning that most people do not think of is identical twins. Although they are not clones of their mother, they are exact clones of each other.
Scientists have experimented with animal cloning, but have never been able to stimulate a specialized cell to produce a new organism directly. Instead, they rely on transplanting the genetic information from a specialized cell into an unfertilized egg cell whose genetic composition has been destroyed or physically removed.

The steps that John Gurdon used to clone tadpoles.
    *Transplanted the nucleus from a specialized cell of one frog (A) into an unfertilized egg of another frog (B) in which the nucleus had been destroyed by ultraviolet light. The egg with the transplanted nucleus developed into a tadpole that was genetically identical to Frog A.

Plant Cloning

Scientists have been able to clone plants by taking pieces of specialized roots, breaking them up into root cells and growing the root cells in a nutrient-rich culture. In culture, the specialized cells become unspecialized (dedifferentiated) into calluses.

The calluses can then be stimulated with the appropriate plant hormones to grow into new plants that are identical to the original plant from which the root pieces were taken.


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