Cloning

Have you ever wondered how another exact copy of living creature could be created? Most of us would have heard ‘Dolly’ the sheep before. Dolly looks just like her mum.

To clone a gene, we first require a DNA fragment containing the gene of interest to be isolated from chromosomal DNA using restriction enzymes and then write it with a plasmid that has been cut with the same restriction enzymes.

Many of you might think that ‘Dolly’ the sheep was the first animal to be cloned. Hehe.. But you are wrong. The first animal that was cloned was a tadpole. Before Dolly was created, the first mammal cloned from the cell of a grown-up animal, the clones were created from embryonic cells.

Since Dolly, scientists have cloned both large and small animals like the sheep, pigs, cats, rabbits, goats, cows and even gaur.

Do you think whatever you like to clone would be successful?
Cloning of monkeys, chickens, horses and dogs have not been successful.

Some species are more resistant to ell nuclear transfer than others. Improvements in cloning technologies are needed so that many species can be cloned successfully but of course this concerns ethical and moral issues too, especially in the case of human beings.

Picture showing the Process of Cloning Dolly