What is cloning?
Q: What is cloning?
A: Cloning is the process of producing one or more genetically identical individuals. It can refer to the deliberate production of an identical copy, like with Dolly the sheep, or it can refer to natural clones such as human identical twins or offspring from asexual reproduction.
Q: How does cloning work in genetics and cell biology?
A: In genetics and cell biology, cloning refers especially to the DNA sequence, and by implication all the other macromolecules. Changes to the DNA in any shape or form means that daughter cells are not identical with mother cells. Typically during development genes are switched on and off which causes daughter cells to become differentiated into mature tissue cells that are not identical with original stem cells.
Q: Is cloning common among mammals?
A: Cloning is natural to some animals but rare in mammals. An exception is the nine-banded armadillo which normally gives birth to identical quadruplets.
Q: Are there any laboratory techniques for cloning molecules?
A: Yes, laboratory copying of a molecule to produce exact copies is also called cloning.
Q: Are all clones exact replicas of each other?
A: No, changes made to DNA mean that daughter cells are not always exact replicas of their mother cell even if they were derived from it originally. During development genes are switched on and off which causes differentiation between daughter cells and original stem cells so they may no longer be exact replicas of each other.
Q: Is Dolly the sheep an example of cloning?
A: Yes, Dolly was famously cloned using a technique called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). This was one of first successful examples of mammalian cloning achieved in history.
