Cloning and its benefits

Essay by Marcos5200College, UndergraduateA, September 2006

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Cloning is the production of a group of genetically identical cells or organisms, all descended from a single individual. The members of a clone have precisely the same characteristics, except where mutation and environmentally caused developmental variation have occurred. The DNA is precisely the same and they are only different by their experiences in which dictate their personality.

There are some types of natural cloning that nature displays. Some animals have the powers of Regeneration. If the body of certain starfishes is cut up into its five arms, each arm will regenerate a complete individual. Another type of asexual reproduction

found in all animals, human beings included, is the formation of identical twins, triplets, and so on.

The growth of a tumor in the body of an individual is in fact, the formation

of a clone of malignant cells. Humans have learned from nature and started their cloning saga. One method of artificial cloning is used on plant breeding, cells are cut from a plant and placed in a flask with a nutrient medium.

The cells grow and divide, forming embryonic tissues that are transferred to soil, where the plants grow as any other normal plant.

Grafting is another method of cloning used in Horticulture. Matching cuts are made in the stems of two plants, which are then fitted together so that their transport systems are in contact. The wounded area heals, and the two stems become a single physiological unit. All the McIntosh apple trees and many other fruit varieties have been derived by grafting from single ancestral trees.

Nuclear transplantation, in which nuclei from cells of one individual are transferred to unfertilized eggs which its nuclei has been removed, this method of artificial cloning is used in animals. All the transplanted nuclei are generally identical, and therefore the...