Cloning in Plants & Animals Free Essay Example

Cloning has been going on in the natural world for thousands of years. A clone is simply one living thing made from another, leading to two organisms with the same set of genes. In that sense, identical twins are clones, because they have identical DNA. Sometimes, plants are self-pollinated, producing seeds and eventually more plants with the same genetic code. Some forests are made entirely of trees originating from one single plant; the original tree spread its roots, which later sprouted new trees.

When earthworms are cut in half, they regenerate the missing parts of their bodies, leading to two worms with the same set of genes.

However, the ability to intentionally create a clone in the animal kingdom by working on the cellular level is a very recent development. The first cloned animals were created by Hans Dreisch in the late 1800’s. Dreich’s original goal was not to create identical animals, but to prove that genetic material is not lost during cell division.

Dreich’s experiments involved sea urchins, which he picked because they have large embryo cells, and grow independently of their mothers. Dreich took a 2 celled embryo of a sea urchin and shook it in a beaker full of sea water until the two cells separated.

Each grew independently, and formed a separate, whole sea urchin. The first cloned mammal were in 1986, when two teams, working independently but using nearly the same method but the possibility of human cloning, raised when a Scottish scientist Ian Wilmut at Roslin Institute created the sheep “Dolly”, it stimulated worldwide interest and concern because of its scientific and ethical proposition.

Many plants clone themselves naturally to reproduce. They send a small shoot-like structure, called a runner, along the soil. The runner grows into a new separate plant that is genetically identical to the original plant.

In other words, it is a clone. People can clone plants by simply taking a cutting of the plant such as a twig or stem and planting it. This is called vegetative propagation. Horticulturists use cloning to grow plants with specific qualities, like height, flower color and quality. They use a more complex method than vegetative propagation called tissue culture. Main Body Cloning animals has recently become a possibility that seems much more realistic in today’s society than it was twenty years ago. It is a method that involves the production of a group of identical cells or organisms that all came from a single individual.

It is known when and how cloning animals really became a possible. There are two possible ways that we can clone animals. The first way involves splitting an embryo into several halves and creating many new individuals from that embryo. The second method of cloning animals involves taking cells from an already existing animal and cloning them, in turn creating other individuals that are identical to that particular animal. With these two methods almost at our fingertips, we must ask ourselves two very important questions: Is this ethical, and should we?

There is no doubt that many problems involving the technological and ethical sides of this issue will arise and will be virtually impossible to avoid, but the overall idea of cloning animals is one that we should accept as a possible reality for the future. Cloning animals is an idea that has always been thought of as something that could be found in science fiction novels, but never as a concept that society could actually experience. One great bonus of cloning animals is that if you cloned endangered species you could expand their populations immensely.

You just need one cell of them, then use cloning technology to save the animal. Take an example, you can use cloning technology to clone the better sheep or cows to prevent the virus’s attack so can protect the whole groups of animals. In the other hand, the benefits of cloning domestic animals are that you human genes can be incorporated into an animal’s body so that they have human genes and some of the animals parts can be used by human, such as some of the animal’s blood can used by human, but these animals should use the cloning technology to contain some human’s gene.

Furthermore cloning family pets can great for some people who really loved their pets. Why many people against cloning, it is because that cloning still has some problems. The scientists found that the cloning animal’s Gene has a little different from the original animal. So the life will shorter than the real life. The fact proved that, the cloning sheep Dolly has died. It only lived the half life of the common sheep. That maybe could have been a defect of the cloning animals. To my own opinion I agree to clone the endangered animal and disagree with cloning human. It really an bring us many benefits and further more it can develop the science of human. If we clone human, there will be many problems, the population is the biggest problem. Maybe some people will use the cloning people to start war or like what the lecture said “the clone might kill you and start living your life! However I am all for animal cloning despite some ethical issues. There seems to be no ethics issues with Plant cloning so it is more socially accepted. Cloning in plants is asexual reproduction. Tissue culture starts by using a small piece of the desired plant such as a bud, node, leaf segment or root segment.

It is grown in a test tube on a culture medium that provides nutrients. It is then chemically treated to produce shoots. Buds from each of these shoots can then be separated to grow more shoots, and the shoots are then treated to grow roots so that they develop into whole plants. All the plants produced in this way are genetically identical because they have all come from the same plant initially and so share that plant’s genetic makeup. The offspring will be plants that are identical to the parent plant. Cloning preserves the character of your favorite plant.

Cloning can make an ocean of green plants out of a single plant, so it is a great tool for growing large crops, and will fill a closet quickly with your favorite genetics. When you find the plant you want to be your “buddy” for the rest of your life, you can keep that plant’s genetic character alive for decades and pass it on to your children’s children. Propagate and share it with others, to keep a copy, should your own line die out. A clone can be taken from a clone at least 20 times, and probably more, so don’t worry about myths of reduced vigor.

Many reports on the internet indicate it’s not a problem. Cloning will open you to the risk of a fungus or pests wiping out the whole crop, so it’s important to pick plants that exhibit great resistance to fungus and pests. Pick the plant you feel will be the most reliable to reproduce in large scale, based on health, growth rate, resistance to pests, and potency. Plant cloning is more beneficial to humans and nature. It can strengthen the produce by resisting pest and diseases. The less pesticides and fertilizers used, it is more environmentally friendly and safe for human consumption.

Conclusion My research made me concluded that cloning in animals is still on the borderline due to ethics and morality, where as cloning in plants in more acceptable and virtually helpful to people and the environment. Cloning is a touchy subject due to issues that men are playing God, but sometimes it takes men to solve and understand the ways of life so that people in the future can live a happy and safe life. I am all for cloning in animals and plants it can save lives and probably bring back some old ones!