Cloning By Alfredo Zanatti, Tomas Bauer, Ricardo Rojas, Daniel Benetuce and Hee Chae Chon

  • How does genetic engineering relate to cloning?



A technology used to other the genetic material of living cells in order of producing new substance or performing new function, its used by scientists to change the DNA of living organism. Cloning is trying to copy a genetic chain of a living thing and copy it to another. These two cloning and genetic engineering are related because both of them work with the DNA and genetic chains. Cloning copies this DNA and makes an exact copy but Genetic Engineering modifies them and makes a copy from the changed DNA form.



  • What are the main features about cloning?

Usually, twins react after the fertilization of an egg cell by a sperm cell. Very rarely, when fertilized egg, called a zygote, tries to divide into a two-celled embryo, the two cells separate. Each cell continues dividing, finally transforming to a separate individual in the mother. Since the two cells came from the same zygote, the resulting individuals are genetically the same.
Artificial embryo cloning uses the same strategy, but it occurs in a Petri dish instead of in the mother's body. A Petri Dish is a shallow cylindrical class that biologists use to culture cells. This is achieved by scientificaly separating a fresh embryo to individual cells, and then letting each cell to separate and transform. The resulting embryos are placed into a surrogate mother, where they are carried to term and delivered. Again, since all the embryos came from the same zygote, they are genetically the same.


  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of cloning?




Biological cloning is the process of creating or producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals. This can be positive and negative for various reasons. Creating an exact replica of an organism can be positive for testing and for curing different diseases. Cloning can also take part in human organs; the cloning of these can serve as backup for the human being, which can eventually be a lifesaver. Cloning can also be a solution towards infertility, since cloning is asexual. Cloning can also help humanity regarding genetic diseases since they can be eliminated. By cloning science can “customize” organisms, making them positive as possible for society. These are various positive aspects of cloning but there is also a negative side. Since cloning is creating an exact replica humanity will loose the beauty that is diversity. Another negative side of cloning is that cloning may also create an exact replica of an undesirable organ and therefore create a disease or a malpractice in humanity. There is no proof that cloning can be one hundred percent effective or cost efficient so no one really knows how effective cloning really is. Cloning will destroy nature by making it another man made feature and the value of a person will be compared to a computers or a television, this will completely destroy humanities value. These are the positive and negative aspects of cloning.


  • Example:

On the 5th of July of 1996, Dolly the sheep was born. Dolly was the first mammal to be successfully cloned after a total of 277 attempts and help from three other sheep. The cloning process consisted of somatic cell nuclear transfer in which the cell nucleus of an adult cell is placed into an unfertilized oocyte with its nucleus removed. Then this new modified cell is given a small electric shock to stimulate it to divide. From this process it evolves into a blastocyst which is then transferred into the surrogate mother. Dolly was cloned by a whole team of scientists, the lead scientists being Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell. The initial cell was taken from a mammary gland. With Dolly’s existence, this proves that from a single cell a whole being could be duplicated. Dolly the sheep lived to the young age of six. Despite her successful cloning, she suffered from lung disease and severe arthritis though scientists believe there is no connection of her diseases to her cloning.


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