Biotechnology, biotechnics & technology guide

Cloning is a very broad technology and one form that many years ago, we would have only dreamed about or thought would happen only in far-fetched science fiction movies. However, it is in the present and is one which allows us to and has allowed us to generate a population of genetically identical cells, plants, some animals and molecules.

Molecular or gene cloning

This is the process by which we create genetically identical molecules and one which provides the basis for molecular biology revolution and is an essential tool of biotechnology research and development.

Molecular cloning is the basis by which virtually all applications of recombinant DNA technology relies on from the human genome project to the manufacturing of pharmaceuticals to producing transgenic crops.

Molecular cloning has made research findings possible including localising and characterising genes, creating genetic maps and the sequencing of entire genomes along with associating specific genes with traits and finding the molecular basis of those traits.

Animal cloning

For more than two decades we have relied on the cloning of animals to help us with incorporating improvements in herds of livestock and has been an important tool for researchers since the 1950`s.

Perhaps the most famous of all cloned animals and one that most of us will have heard about is Dolly the sheep in 1977, this was of course the first time the cloning of animals had been brought to the general public’s attention.

While the production of a cloned animal was not a new breakthrough Dolly was considered a scientific breakthrough due to the fact not because she was a clone but that the source of the genetic material used to clone her was as adult cell not an embryonic one.

Today recombinant DNA technologies are providing us with animal models that allow us to study genetic disease, disease relating to aging and cancer and in the near future, they will allow us to discover drugs and help us to evaluate other forms of therapy such as gene and cell therapies.

In the ideal, the cloning of animals could also help provide zoo researchers with the opportunity to help save endangered species. There are basically two different ways in which we can make an exact genetic copy of an organism such as Dolly the sheep

Artificial embryo twinning

This is now regarded as the old-fashioned way when it comes to cloning and basically is a way of cloning identical twins but instead of using a womb, a Petri dish is used. The embryo is separated very early on into individual cells and then allowed to grow on its own. The resulting embryos are then surgically planted into a surrogate womb and allowed to grow.

Somatic cell nuclear transfer

This relies on the isolation of a somatic cell, which is a body cell, which is any cell other than those used for reproduction. Every somatic cell in mammals has two complete sets of chromosomes and in order to make Dolly the sheep scientists had to transfer the nucleus of a somatic cell which was taken from an adult female sheep and transfer it to an egg cell which they had previously removed the nucleus from.

With some chemical intervention from the scientists, the egg cell along with the new nucleus behaved just like a freshly fertilised zygote. It developed into an embryo and was then surgically implanted into a surrogate mother who carried it to term; this of course was Dolly the sheep and was the general population’s first insight into the fascinating world of cloning and gave us an indication of what to expect in the future in one aspect of biotechnology.