Cloning Plants and Animals

Cell’s Potential• Cells that are blank slates

are called stem cells• Stem cells are cells that have

the potential to become any other type of cell

• A cell that already has already developed and has a purpose is called a differentiated cell

• These cells have the same set of DNA that is contained in a stem cell but are only using a segment of it

Cell’s Potential

• A popular topic in science is how to express the silent part of the DNA in a differentiated cell

• How can we change the differentiated cell into a new type of cell?

• How can we get the DNA that we want to be expressed working?

Cell’s Potential

• A clone is an organism that is produced asexually from a single or group of cells

• Clones are organisms that can be created from stem cells or from differentiated types of cells

• It all depends on what type of organism you are trying to clone

Cloning Plants• Cloning plants is not as

difficult as you might think• In fact several people in

this room might have cloned plants before

• If you have ever taken a “cutting” from a plant to create an entire new plant, you have cloned a plant

• It is a way to asexually recreate a new plant

Cloning Plants

• Cloning plants is now used expensively in commercial agriculture

• Plants that have desirable traits are selected and they are asexually reproduced– Plants that produce more

fruit, can resist disease, grow quickly, etc

Cloning Plants

• This means that plants have the ability to utilize sections of their DNA that are normally not used when they differentiate

• They can access different parts of their DNA to create more plant cells that can differentiate

Reproductive Cloning

• Animals do not have the same ability to utilize DNA exactly like a plant

• Most multicellular animals do not have the ability to regenerate like a plant– However some animals

can regenerate lost body parts

Reproductive Cloning

• There are two main types of cloning

• Reproductive cloning is the type of cloning where a live organism is born

• Therapeutic cloning has the main goal of producing stem cells for therapeutic treatments

Reproductive Cloning• Most reproductive cloning

of complex animals is done through the use of nuclear transplantation

• Nuclear transplantation is the process of removing a zygote’s nucleus with a nucleus from a somatic cell

• This would allow a cell to have DNA from a donor cell and still be able to divide

Reproductive Cloning• Some organisms

(mammals) need to have that cloned cell eventually implanted in a parental organism

• This will give them the chance to develop

• These will eventually give rise to a new organism

Therapeutic Cloning• Therapeutic cloning of

animals can involve trying to create more stem cells from an organism

• Often times adult stem cells are harvested to produce specific tissues

• Adult stem cells are stem cells that will only give rise to specific type of cells

Therapeutic Cloning

• Adult stem cells from an animal can be found in the skin, bone marrow, hair, livers etc

• These cells are then then cloned to create a new group of adult differentiated cells

• These cells can then be used in many different medical therapies