Brain builder: What are some species that can naturally clone themselves? Cell division in living organisms Natural cloning is more common among plants. (vegetative reproduction) Clones of single parent plants can arise from bulbs, spores, stems and leaves. All plants have one kind of cell that remains forever in the embryonic condition. These cell layers of embryonic tissue are totipotent and can give rise to new differentiated cells (cells that assume a specific role- leaf cells, root cells, bud cells, etc.). Example; Luetkea pectinata (Partridgefoot) used for revegetation efforts in Snow Lake basin. Plant breeders may develop a superior variety of apple for instance and then, by producing millions of genetically identical trees that grow identically the same variety, establish a successful fruit market. +1 e.c. What are heirloom species and why are they important? What's the world's largest clone? Answer: an aspen tree...and it's a natural clone, not a human-engineered one. Nicknamed 'Pando' (Latin for 'I spread'), this 'stand' of 47,000 aspens in Utah is actually a single tree. It weighs six million kilograms (13 million pounds)--making it not only the world's largest clone, but also the world's second largest living thing! What is the worlds largest living organism?p/largest-living-thing Animals that can clone themselves Sea anemone In some animals-this occurs in nature. Totipotent cells- as in the foot of a sea anemone, when cut, will dedifferentiate, and return to an embryonic condition. Then they will redifferentiate into foot, muscle, and nerve tissue and the entire organism is cloned. Hydra budding Observations of this cloning process in nature led to the question Can this natural cloning process be duplicated in the lab? At Cornell University in 1953, F.E. Stewart and his team of graduate students took tiny fragments from a fully differentiated (grown) root of a carrot and forced it to dedifferentiate into embryonic cells (an embryoid) and then redifferentiate into a fully adult carrot plant. John Gurdon, a British biologist, pursued the next question: Can a differentiated cell from the intestine of a frog dedifferentiate and then redifferentiate into an adult frog? The technique used is known as Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer: The main method of cloning. The nucleus, containing two sets of each chromosome, is taken from a somatic cell, such as a skin cell or cheek cell, and inserted into an egg from which the chromosomes have been removed. The process is sometimes referred to as "nuclear transplantation."chromosomesomatic cell The result (see figure 3) demonstrated in 1966 that the younger the totipotent donor cell, the greater the survival of the transplant. What was the first cloned mammal? In 1997, a Scottish researcher Ian Wilmut and his team announced that they had cloned an adult sheep by transplanting the nucleus mammary gland tissue of an adult sheep into an egg cell from another sheep (see Figure 4). It was found that the cloned animal, named Dolly, was not identical to the donor mammary cell mother, as the mitochondrial DNA of the egg cell belongs to the egg cell donor. Dolly bred twice, once giving birth to a ewe, and later having three lambs, a ewe and two rams. BBC ON THIS DAY | 22 | 1997: Dolly the sheep is cloned In 1998, researchers in Hawaii announced that they had cloned 50 mice, using nuclei from ovary cells, and bred the mice for three generations. BBC News | SCI/TECH | Cloned mice follow Dolly Other cloned mammals. Snuppy, the first cloned dog. CC the first cloned cat. The first cloned monkey BBC News | SCI/TECH | Scientists 'clone' monkeyBBC News | SCI/TECH | Scientists 'clone' monkey Additional information on cloning NPR : Special Report: Cloning After years of delay, the Food and Drug Administration tentatively concluded in December 2007 that milk and meat from cloned farm animals are safe to eat. That finding could make the United States the first country to allow products from cloned livestock to be sold in grocery stores.Food and Drug Administration BIO | Cloned Animals A Risk-Based Approach to Evaluate Animal Clones and Their ProgenyA Risk-Based Approach to Evaluate Animal Clones and Their Progeny cloned animals allowed by FDA, 2007 union for concerned scientistscloned animals allowed by FDA, 2007 union for concerned scientists Currently in the United States there is a strong injunction on the cloning of human beings. Federal funds cannot be used to carry a cloned embryo to term, and private laboratories are under severe pressure not to do so. However, under government sanction or not, someone out there will one day successfully clone a human. And when that occurs, a multitude of questions about the consequences of the event will be need to be asked. The genie will be let out of the bottle. 8.What value will sexual reproduction have in the face of certainties of asexual reproduction? Will cloning lead to the loss of diversity, a tendency towards homogeneity? 9.How can society accommodate a population of clones destined to serve the needs of a few? 10.Should individuals have rights to their clonal twin? Why or why not? 11.Should clones have any legal rights? If so what rights should they have? 12.Should government ban or limit reproductive cloning? Why or why not? 13.How would the society reorganize itself to include clones of the brilliant, the talented in entertainment, the political leaders, the scientists and the technicians? 14.What other legal, social, economic, or moral issues might arise if reproductive cloning is allowed?