Cloning
Why Should we clone organisms? Learn from a scientific view.
What is Cloning? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
Cloning is a process that involves great modern technology to make an exact genetic copy of an organism. Our experiences as scientists have taught us that, with a little work, we humans can clone just about anything we want with time. But why would we want to? First off, cloning benefits the field of medicine. Much of what researchers learn about human disease comes from studying animal models such as mice. These animal models are genetically engineered to carry diseases causing mutations in their genes. Creating these animals is a time consuming process that requires trial-and-error and generations of breeding. Cloning could help reduce the time needed to make these animal models, and the result would be a population of genetically identical animals for medical professionals to study. Additionally, cloning would allow researchers to resurect extinct species. Do you remember the Jurassic movies where a scientist preserved DNA from dinosaurs to bring back different species. Although we can not bring back dinosaurs, cloning allows us to bring back (only female) organisms that went extinct. In 2009, scientists had their first success in bringing back an extinct species. Using goats as egg donors and surrogates, they made several clones of a wild mountain goat called the bucardo. Also, cloning allows important organisms for farms or sentimental value to come back or to have two or more organisms exactly the same for work. But, some cons of cloning would be that the organisms would have a more increased risk to mutation of genes and the horror if the technology got into the wrong hands of people who would use it for all the wrong reasons. Overall, as a scientist, I feel the benefits outway the disadvantages.
Background Information
Technology
There are two ways to clone organisms. These are Artificial Embryo twinning and Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer. Artificial embryo twinning is a relatively low-tech way to make clones. As the name suggests, this technique mimics the natural process that creates identical twins. A very early embryo is separated into individual cells, which are allowed to divide and develop for a short time in the Petri dish. The embryos are then placed into a surrogate mother, where they finish developing. Again, since all the embryos came from the same fertilized egg, they are genetically identical. Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer is when researchers isolate a somatic cell from an adult female. Next, they remove the nucleus from an egg cell. Then, they transfer the nucleus from the somatic cell to the egg cell. The egg cell, with its new nucleus, behaves just like a fertilized egg. It develops into an embryo that is implanted into a surrogate mother and carried to term.