Cloning In Biotechnology

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To create a clone is to create identical copy. This imprecise definition can be tied to a number of creatures and processes in biology, those including, mono zygote (identical) twins (when one fertilized egg splits into two embryos in the first week of fertilization) , horticulture (a section of plant being implanted in a different place to create a decedent of the original plant) , and parthenogenesis (the method of asexual reproduction by females.) The creatures and processes listed above all fall under the category clones and cloning, but the difference between these and the clones and cloning processes normally referenced in, for example, science fiction, is where they occur. The examples listed are naturally occurring clones and cloning techniques, regarded as biology clones, whereas the other type of clones and cloning occurs artificially or in laborites. This genre of cloning is cloning in biotechnology. This cloning specifically refers to three established techniques: reproductive cloning, therapeutic cloning, and gene cloning. From observing the biological, naturally occurring cloning, scientists were able to create methods for created clones that are created in the laboratory intentionally. Although clones created through biotechnology are commonly associated with fantasy and science fiction, cloning animals with biotechnology is no fiction. There are even examples of animals being somewhat successfully cloned by scientists such as the lionized Dolly the Sheep. This type of technology even has the potential to clone humans, or extinct animals. Even though scientist have advanced technology and knowledge on cloning, the topic of whether or not this technology should be used is controversial. Despite the controversy and p...

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...the scientists creating dolly starved the donor sheep’s cells to make sure they were inactive. The scientists then committed somatic cell nuclear transfer and took the inactive donor cells and fused them with an egg without a nucleus from a different bread of sheep. Then, continuing to use the reproductive cloning procedure, the scientist implanted the egg into a third breed of sheep’s uterus. When Dolly came to full term and was born, the scientist immediately recognized that the lamb looked very similar to the breed of the sheep who donated the DNA, and nothing like the sheep who donated the egg or gave birth to the lamb. Later on, DNA tests confirmed that indeed, Dolly was an exact clone of the DNA donor. On April 13, 1998 Dolly gave birth to a healthy lamb, proving her health to be standard. She would eventually have two more pregnancies and have five more lambs.

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