Cloning

What is Cloning?

1. Who is Dolly? Dolly is a sheep that is actually none other than a clone. This occurred in 1997.

2. When a zygote divides into to separate cells, it is called: A Two-Celled Embryo

3. Somatic cells are also called: body cells.

4. In order to clone a gene, a gene is inserted into a: petri dish.

5. In order to create an embryo from a somatic cell, the donor egg cell must have its nucleus removed.

Click and Clone

6. List all the materials needed to clone a mouse.

Mimi (Brown mouse that shall be cloned)

Megdo (Black mouse egg cell donor)

Momi (White mouse surrogate mother)

Microscope

Petri Dishes

Sharp Pipette

Blunt Pippete

Chemical to stimulate cell division

7. Place the following steps in the correct order.

4: Stimulate cell division
6: Deliver baby
2: Remove and discard the nucleus from the egg cell
1: Isolate donor cells from egg donor and germ cell donor

3: Transfer the somatic cell nucleus into the egg cell

5: Implant embryo into a surrogate mother

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8. There are two time gaps in the process of cloning. What are they? (ie. what do you have to wait for?) You must wait for the egg cell and the DNA in the somatic nucleus to adjust to each other, and you must wait for the cell to divide a few times.

9. What color with the cloned mouse be? The mouse is brown, just like its somatic cell donor mother. What is the name of this mouse? The name of the clone is Mini-Mimi.

Why Clone?

10. Why is cloning extinct animals problematic? In order to clone extinct animals, there must be an extremely well preserved DNA sample, and most of the time, there aren't any.

11. What are some reasons a person might want to clone a human? Some reasons people might want to clone another person or themselves is so that the clone can replace a dead child or help infertile couples have a child.

The Clone Zone

12. What animal was cloned in 1885? Sea urchins were cloned in 1885.

13. How did Spemann separate the two cells of the embryo of a salamander in 1902? Spermann used a tiny noose from a strand of baby hair to separate the cells.

14. The process of removing a nucleus is called enucleation.

15. In 1952, the nucleus of a tadpole embryo cell was placed into a donor cell. Did it work to clone the animal? Yes.

16. Can the nucleus of an adult cell be injected into an egg cell and produce a clone? Yes.

17. Why are mammals hard to clone? Mammals are hard to clone because of their smaller egg cells that, of course, form in females.

18. What were the names of the first two cloned cows? The first two cloned calves were called Fusion and Copy.

19. In what year was the National Bioethics Advisory Council formed? 1995

20. The first mammal clone to be produced from an adult (somatic) cell? Dolly the sheep.

21. What do scientists do to adult cells to make them "behave" like embryos? Scientists "reboot" the cells and fuse them with egg cells using a small electrical shock.

22. Transgenic, cloned sheep were used to produce what medical protein? The sheep were used to make a blood clotting protein that could help with hemophilia.

23. What is a stem cell? A stem cell is a universal cell that can develop to form anything, such as skin, muscles, tissue, bones, blood, and more.

Cloning Myths

24. Briefly describe in your own words, why CC the cat was not identical in color to Rainbow, even though she was a clone.

When Rainbow was born, her cells turned off either the black color or orange color on the X chromosome. Because CC was cloned, the somatic cell was only retrieved from a patch on Rainbow that had strictly the black color on the X chromosome turned on.

25. What is "nature vs nurture"?

Nature vs. Nurture is pretty much just that while two people can be the exact same in genetic coding, the epigenetic factors will always be different in some form, causing the people to be different.

Is it Cloning or Not?

26. For each of the following scenarios, indicate YES (it is cloning) or NO (it is not cloning)

NO Sperm taken from a mole goat is combined with a female's egg in a petri dish. The resulting embryo is implanted into the female's uterus to develop
YES A sheep embryo, composed of 16 cells, is removed from the mother's uterus and separated into indivudal cells. Each cell is allowed to multiply, creating 16 separate embryos, which are then implanted in different female sheep to develop to maturity.
YES A cow with many desirable traits is stimulated with hormones to produce a number of egg cells. Each of these eggs is fertilized and implanted into a surrogate mother.
NO In vitro fertilization
YES Cell nuclei from an extinct wolly mammoth are placed into enucleated cow cells.

27. Define or describe each of the following processes (you may need to reset the Cloning or Not Screen)

Invitro fertilization

In vitro fertilization is the fusion of a father's sperm with a mother's egg, therefore allowing the child to be unique.

Embryo splitting

All of the original 16 cells came from a single somatic cell on a certain sheep embryo and were separated into different mother surrogates, resulting in cloning.

Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

All of the offspring would be the same genetically because the cells have the same genes and will form an identical clone.

Multiple Ovulation Embryo Transfer

Taking donor egg cells and fertilizing them with male sperm is not cloning because none of the offspring would be identical.

Artificial Insemination

Each sperm is different as well as each cow, and this results as not cloning because all the cows birthed are different.

What Are the Risks of Cloning?

28. What is one reason why cloning animals has such a high failure rate?

One reason is that sometimes the enucleated egg is not compatible with the transferred nucleus.

29. What is a telomere and how does it affect cloned animals?

Telomeres are DNA sequences at each end of a chromosome. As cells divide, telomeres can become longer or shorter. This is what occurs with clones and their telomeres. They can become longer or shorter, such as Dolly the sheep.

What Are Some Issues in Cloning?

30. Pick one of the questions to ponder and ....ponder it. Write a brief essay on your thoughts and opinions.

Q: What are the benefits?

A: The benefits of cloning are that if a lost one is severely missed, a clone can be made and can help relive some memories or even take the place of the lost one. A HUGE benefit is that, if there is sufficient DNA, we can clone extinct animals that have been well preserved. Those animals can even become a normal species once again. For instance, if we were to clone dinosaurs with well preserved cells, they can be studied and researched as for body types and organs (etc).