Cloning & Biotechnology

Question 1

what are meristems?

Answer 1

parts of plant that replicate by mitosis from stem cells

Question 2

what are runners?

Answer 2

horizontal stems
branching away from plant
then form roots
to reproduce asexually and form a clone

Question 3

what is a rhizome?

Answer 3

horizontal stems grow underground

Question 4

how to take a plant cutting

Answer 4

cut off non-flowering stems from budding plants
dip in plant hormone root powder (to encourage growth)
dip in fungicide (to prevent infections)
then grow soil

Question 5

process of micropropagation

Answer 5

take tissue culture
sterilise (e.g. with ethanol)
grow with hormones (auxins and cytokines) on agar
wait till root develops
callus forms
splits into cells
transfer this to new agar plate
small plantlets form
potted in soil

Question 6

advantages of micropropagation

Answer 6

rapid production of plants

can form disease-free plants

can form seedless plants

can form genetically modified plants

can form lots of rare or endangered plants

Question 7

disadvantages of micropropagation

Answer 7

expensive

requires skilled workers

if original plant has virus this will spread to all clones

monocultures grown and reduced gene pool
so all plants susceptible to same diseases

Question 8

which invertebraes can naturally clone themselves?

Answer 8

starfish

identical twins