What is cloning?

1. What is cloning? • “assisted reproductive technology” • Ability to create genetically identical organisms by transferring genetic information from one animal into an egg cell • Cloning does NOT change DNA Naturally Occurring Clones

2. Why clone? • Helps to maintain high quality livestock • Humans would eat the offspring of clones, not the clone itself (ex. chickens from the Clone movie) • Quickly reproduces high quality livestock • Can be used to protect endangered species • Could help cure diseases and support organ transplants (called Therapeutic Cloning) • Could allow infertile people to have children

3. How is an organism cloned? • Artificial Embryo Twinning • Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

4. How is an organism cloned? • Artificial Embryo Twinning • Sperm cell fertilizes egg cell (cell is now called embryo) • Embryo naturally splits in two • Scientist splits the two cells and puts them in separate Petri dishes • The cells divide and grow • Cells go into surrogate mothers • Identical twins are born

5. How is an organism cloned? • Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer • Start with somatic cell (all chromosomes are included) • Empty nucleus from an egg cell • Use electric shock to cause somatic cell and egg cell to join (cell now called an embryo) • Place embryo into surrogate mother • Embryo grows and develops until clone is birthed

6. Successfully Cloned Animals

7. Risks of Cloning • High failure rate • Success rate of 0.1 - 3%, • For every 1000 tries, 30 clones are made • Clones are much bigger at birth and have abnormally large organs • Can lead to breathing problems, blood flow problems, kidney or brain malformations, and impaired immune systems

8. Costs • Cloning a cow costs between $10,000 and $20,000

9. Genetic Technology/Engineering • Genetic Technology provides opportunities to change plants and animals genetically • It can change the living world as we know it • Includes: 1.) Selective breeding 2.) Biotechnology/genetic engineering: Genetically Modified organisms

10. 1.) Selective Breeding • Selective breeding is used to produce organisms with desired traits • 2 ways to selectively breed: • Hybridization: Crossing two dissimilar organisms to bring the best traits from both together • ex. Limequat and Tangelo • Inbreeding: Crossing two very similar or closely related individuals in order to maintain a desired trait • ex. Dog breeding

11. Selective Breeding • Hybridization: ex. Limequat and Tangelo • Inbreeding: ex. Dog breeding

13. 2.) Biotechnology/genetic engineering • Biotechnology/Genetic engineering involves manipulating DNA to transform organisms • makes it possible to cross genes that would not normally happen in nature • involves cutting DNA from one organism and inserting into the DNA of another (creates recombinant DNA) • transgenic organisms – contain functional recombinant DNA from an organism of a different genus

14. Genetic Engineering: How do you insert DNA? 3 step process: 1.) Isolate foreign DNA • Uses restrictive enzymes – bacterial proteins that can cut DNA strands into specific nucleotide sequences 2.) Attach DNA fragment to a carrier • uses vectors • mechanical – micropipette, gene gun • biological – virus, plasmid (bacterial DNA) 3.) Transfer into host organism

16. Biotechnology/Genetic Engineering: • Genetic Engineering results in: • Transformation: New DNA put into a new cell • Transgenic Organisms: Contains genes from other species

17. Genetic Modification • Combination of biotechology/genetic engineering and selective breeding • Results in genetically modified organisms (GMOs) • Almost everything has been genetically modified • Usually used to make things bigger and better • Used a lot today with food

18. Possible Benefitsof GM Foods • Easing of world hunger • Development of crops that can be grown in marginal soil • Reduced strain on nonrenewable resources • Development of drought resistant crops • Development of salt-tolerant crops • Development of crops that make more efficient use of nitrogen and other nutrients

19. Possible Benefits of GM Foods • Reduced use of pesticides and herbicides • Development of pest resistant crops • Reduced herbicide use is better for the environment and reduces costs for farmers

20. Possible Benefits of GM Foods • Improved crop quality • Development of frost resistant crops • Development of disease resistant crops • Development of flood resistant crops • Improved nutritional quality • Development of foods designed to meet specific nutritional goals

21. Who makes sure GM foods are safe? • Government agencies regulate GM foods • GM foods in the United States are required to be labeled only if the nutritional value is changed or a new allergen is introduced.

22. Possible Risks of GM Foods • Insects might develop resistance to pesticide-producing GM crops • Herbicide-tolerant crops may cross-pollinate weeds, resulting in "superweeds"

23. Possible Risks for GM Foods • Certain gene products may be allergens, thus causing harm to human health • There may be unintended harm to wildlife and beneficial insects Photo courtesy of T. W. Davies, Cal. Acad. of Sciences.

24. Other Genetic Technologies: Gel Electrophoresis: A method used to determine exactly what DNA fragments have been formed by restriction enzyme cutting • fragments placed in “wells” formed in gel • electric field is applied forming +/- ends • DNA fragments separate based on size and charge (smallest moves farthest away from wells)

26. Human Genome Project • Began in 1990. • The goal was to analyze the entire human DNA sequence (6 billion base pairs) • Originally scheduled to be completed in 2005 • In June 2003, the map was completed • Cloning may be the next step

27. Human Genome Project