Cloning

Cloning is a process in which an exact replica is made from an organism, cell, or tissue. The duplicate contains the same genetic information as the original. When most people think of cloning they think of the cloning of humans that is seen in movies. Cloning can occur in many ways than just one. A lot of cloning happens naturally. Bacteria are an example of naturally occurring cloning. Bacteria can produce a genetically identical offspring through a process called asexual reproduction. In asexual reproduction, a new individual is generated from a copy of a single cell from the parent organism. There are also many other single-celled organisms like bacteria that produce asexually. Identical twins are also an example natural cloning. Identical twins occur when a fertilized egg splits. This creates two or more embryos that have almost the same DNA. Another type of cloning is artificial cloning. This is done in three different ways; gene cloning, reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning. Reproductive cloning is a process in which a duplicate copy of another organism is made. To make this type clone a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer. Somatic cell nuclear transfer is “a technique in which the nucleus of a somatic (body) cell is transferred to the cytoplasm of an enucleated egg (an egg that has had its own nucleus removed)” ("somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT"). Mammals are commonly cloned reproductively. A sheep, known as dolly, was the first mammal cloned, in 1996 by Scottish researchers. Reproductive and therapeutic cloning share many of the same techniques, but are done for different purposes. Like reproductive cloning, therapeutic cloning uses the process of somatic cell nuclear transfer. In therapeutic cloning, the growing egg is used as a source of stem cells, which are undifferentiated cells that can grow into a wide variety of different types of cells. In reproductive cloning, the egg is allowed to grow into a baby. Therapeutic is used