Differentiation: when a cell chooses a particular genetically determined path that causes it to perform only a few specialized tasks... more
DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid): molecular instructions that guide how all living things develop and function...more
Egg: a female gamete, which keeps all the parts of a cell after fusing with a sperm.
Ewe: pronounced \"you,\" a female, or girl, sheep.
Gamete: specialized cells found in your reproductive organs that have half the amount of DNA of somatic cells. These cells combine to make a fertilized egg... more
Gene: a region of DNA that instructs the cell on how to build protein(s). As a human, you usually get a set of instructions from your mom and another set from your dad... more
Nucleus: where DNA stays in the cell, plural is nuclei.
Organism: a living thing that can be small like bacteria or large like an elephant.
Somatic cells: the cells in your body, except for gametes. Soma is Latin for body.
Sperm: a male gamete, which fuses with the egg during fertilization... more
Have you ever sat down to do your homework, looked out of the window and said, "There should be two of me. One to stay here and do my homework and one to play out there." Think of the possibilities! What trouble could you get into if there were two of you? How much fun could you have? If only you had your very own clone! Or maybe you do have your very own clone...
We do have clones living among us today. These clones are called identical twins. A clone is an organism, plant or animal that has the exact same genetic blueprint as another organism. If we have clones everywhere around us, what's the big deal about cloning?
Cloning that is covered by the news today is special because we can manipulate cells in such a specific way that we can create clones outside of the body. We are also able to choose which genetic blueprint we want to insert into the cell. The technology came about by studying cells from plants and animals. Scientists discovered what cells require to grow and divide outside the body, what cells need to become specialized cells, and how to use technology to replace the genetic material of a cell.
The first mammal to be cloned was a sheep named "Dolly." Dolly has the genetic material of a white faced sheep, but her mother was a black faced sheep. Since then, several other animals have been cloned and maybe even some people.
This technology is being used more and more by scientists. Cloning is still not an exact science and we do not really know the overall effects of cloning on the organism's health. These issues create some important ethical questions about how we use this technology today and how we will use it in the future.
Credits: Mannequins image via Bioethics.com. Publised under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0.
Faye Farmer. (2009, September 24). Cloning Ewe. ASU - Ask A Biologist. Retrieved August 24, 2024 from https://askabiologist.asu.edu/explore/cloning-ewe
Faye Farmer. "Cloning Ewe". ASU - Ask A Biologist. 24 September, 2009. https://askabiologist.asu.edu/explore/cloning-ewe
Faye Farmer. "Cloning Ewe". ASU - Ask A Biologist. 24 Sep 2009. ASU - Ask A Biologist, Web. 24 Aug 2024. https://askabiologist.asu.edu/explore/cloning-ewe
Living clones would have identical DNA, and so in most cases would look almost exactly the same.
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