Cloning

Cloning is the production of a new individual that contains the same genetic information as the parent

A form of asexual reproduction

Occurs naturally and artificially

Artificial methods of cloning are: cuttings & grafts, tissue culture, embryo splitting and nuclear transfer

Fragments or single cells from a parent plant are selected and grown in a culture medium (contains nutrients and hormones)

Plant fragments are treated with a sterilising solution to kill any bacteria or fungi

Technique used to grow a large number of plants quickly

Is expensive and labor intensive

An egg is fertilised in a petri dish (IVF) and scientists are able to split the embryo (up to 16 cell stage) to create multiple, genetically identical embryos

Embryos are then implanted into surrogate mothers

Used in livestock breeding programs to increase numbers of offspring born

The nucleus is removed from an unfertilised egg and replaced with the nucleus of an adult somatic cell

The egg is transplanted into into a surrogate mother where it will develop into an identical copy of the donar somatic cell

This is how Dolly the sheep was cloned