. Animal Cloning Cloning is the process of producing genetically identical individuals of an organism either naturally or artificially. In nature many organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. Cloning in biotechnology refers to the process of creating copies of organisms or copies of cells or DNA fragments (molecular cloning).
Dolly was the first mammal (Sheep) clone developed by Ian Wilmut and Campbell in . Dolly, the transgenic clone was developed by the nuclear transfer technique and the phenomenon of totipotency. XII Std Biology-Zoology Chapter- XII Std Biology-Zoology Chapter- Applications of Biotechnology ewe which served as a surrogate mother. Five months later dolly was born.
Dolly was the first animal to be cloned from a differentiated somatic cell taken from an adult animal without the process of fertilization (Fig. . ). Ian Wilmut and Campbell removed cells from the udder of an adult sheep and fused those cells with unfertilised egg cells from which the nuclear material was removed.
After culturing the resulting embryos for days , they implanted embryos into the surrogate mother's womb and only one Dolly was produced. Advantages and Disadvantages Of Cloning Animals Advantages • Offers benefits for clinical trials and medical research. It can help in the production of proteins and drugs in the field of medicine. • Aids stem cell research.
• Animal cloning could help to save endangered species. Disadvantages • Animal and human activists see it as a threat to biodiversity saying that this alters evolution which will have an impact on populations and the ecosystem. • The process is tedious and very expensive.It can cause animals to suffer. • Reports show that animal surrogates were manifesting adverse outcomes and cloned animals were affected with disease and have high mortality rate.
• It might compromise human health through consumption of cloned animal meat. • Cloned animals age faster than normal animals and are less healthy than the parent organism as discovered in Dolly. • Cloning can lead to occurrence of genetic disorders in animals. • More than % of cloning attempts fail to produce a viable offspring.
A gene ‘knock out’ is a genetically engineered organism that carries one or more genes in its chromosomes that have been made inoperative.