B3g

Question 1

What are clones?

Answer 1

• genetically identical organisms
• identical twins are clones of each other
• clones occur naturally in plants and animals

Question 2

How does cloning animals work?

Answer 2

Process of Dolly the sheep’s cloning
1-nucleus of sheep 1’s egg cell is removed, leaving the egg without any genetic information
2-another nucleus is inserted into the egg cell from a diplod udder cell from sheep 2 (the one being cloned)
3-cell is given electric shock so it starts to divide by mitosis
4-dividing cell (now embryo) was implanted into the uterus of a surrogate mother sheep (3), to develop until it was ready to be born

Question 3

What are the benefits of cloning?

Answer 3

• human embryos can be produced by cloning adult body cells, these can then be used to supply stem cells. These cells would be exactly the same as the genetic information from the patient, reducing the risk of rejection
• mass produce animals with desirable characteristics

Question 4

What are the risks of cloning?

Answer 4

• some evidence that cloned animals may not be as healthy as normal ones
• cloning is new and might have consequences we are not yet aware of

Question 5

What are the ethical issues of cloning humans?

Answer 5

• lots of surrogate pregnancies required, probably with high rates of miscarriage and still birth
• like clones of other mammals may be unhealthy and die prematurely
• clone may be psychologically damaged by the knowledge that they are just a clone of another human

Question 6

What is tissue culture used for and how does it work?

Answer 6

1-desired plant is chosen
2-remove several small pieces of tissue from parent plant , best results by taking tissue from fast-growing root and shoot tips
3-grow tissue in a growth medium containing nutrients and growth hormones. Done under aseptic conditions to prevent the growth of microbes that could harm the plant
4-the tissue produces shoots and roots and can be moved to a potting compost to carry on growing

Question 7

What is the process to clone plants?

Answer 7

1-take cuttings from good parent plants with a new bud on
2-cuttings are kept in moist conditions until ready to plant
-easier than cloning animals, because many plant cells retain the ability to differentiate

Question 8

What are the advantages of cloning plants?

Answer 8

• you are sure that you will only get good characteristics

- it’s possible to mass produce plants that are hard to grow from seeds

Question 9

What are the disadvantages of cloning plants?

Answer 9

• if a plant suffers from a disease or start doing badly because of a change in environment , they will all have the same problem because they have the same genes
• lack of genetic variation creating usual problems