Cloning / Clone

Is cloning an organism the same as cloning a gene?

You've heard about cloning animals - sheep, mice, even house pets - in the news. From time to time, you may have also heard about researchers cloning, or identifying, genes that are responsible for various medical conditions or traits.

What is the difference?

Cloning an animal, or any other organism, refers to making an exact genetic copy of that organism. The techniques used to clone organisms are described on this page.

Cloning a gene means isolating an exact copy of a single gene from the entire genome of an organism. Usually this involves copying the DNA sequence of that gene into a smaller, more accessible piece of DNA, such as a plasmid. This makes it easier to study the function of the individual gene in the laboratory.

Cloning is the process of creating an identical copy of an original. A clone in the biological sense, therefore, is a single cell (like bacteria, lymphocytes etc.) or multi-cellular organism that is genetically identical to another living organism. Sometimes this can refer to "natural" clones made either when an organism reproduces asexually or when two genetically identical individuals are produced by accident (as with identical twins), but in common parlance the clone is an identical copy by some conscious design. Also see clone (genetics).

The term clone is derived from the Greek word for "twig". In horticulture, the spelling clon was used until the twentieth century; the final e came into use to indicate the vowel is a "long o" instead of a "short o". Since the term entered the popular lexicon in a more general context, the spelling clone has been used exclusively.

Links about Cloning / Clone

Cloning in Focus
An introduction to cloning and how it's done.

The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity
The Center for Bioethics and Human Dignity exists to help individuals and organizations address the pressing bioethical challenges of our day, including managed care, end-of-life treatment, genetic intervention, euthanasia and suicide, and reproductive technologies.

Cloning Responsibly
First it was sheep, then monkeys, cows could be next-- but not humans if President Clinton has his way...

Cloning/Embryonic Stem Cells
The term cloning is used by scientists to describe many different processes that involve making duplicates of biological material. In most cases, isolated genes or cells are duplicated for scientific study, and no new animal results.

The Facts About Cloning by Joshua Marinacci
On February 23, 1997, a group in Scotland, headed by Dr. Ian Wilmut, created the first clone of a large mammal, a sheep named Dolly. In the weeks following, a controversy sprung up around them and the rest of the cloning research community because, for the first time in science history...

Re-defining the Human
Triumphs and Tribulations of Homo xeroxiens.

The Americans to Ban Cloning
A group of concerned Americans and U.S. based organizations that promote a global, comprehensive ban on human cloning.

Cloning and Amplifying Large Genomic DNA Fragments by Dr. Phillip R. Buzby
The construction of detailed gene-linkage maps of complex genomes facilitates the localization of genes to specific regions on chromosomes. Further, precise loclalization of specific genes requires cloning of high-molecular-weight DNA if it is to be done efficiently.

The Cutting Edge
Even though a vast majority of Americans today oppose human cloning, that percentage will change rapidly, to the point where the same majority will support it.

Reflections on Human Cloning
Advances in knowledge and related developments in the procedures of molecular biology, genetics and artificial fertilization have long made it possible to experiment with and successfully achieve the cloning of plants and animals.

Human Cloning approved by HFEA
The HFEA (Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority) and the HGAC (Human Genetics Advisory Commission) have recommended approval of human cloning for therapeutic purposes, but not to make baby clones.

The Tao of Cloning
How does the current level of scientific literacy in the United States limit possibilities offered by recent biotechnical advances? Following his "Monkeys, Sheep and Human Clones: Science, Technology and Bioethics" presentation...

Cloning of The Sheep
Fertilization normally occurs after the sperm fuses with an ovum. The fusion of the sperm with the ovum initiates a successive rounds of cell division followed by differentiation of cells into various tissues.

Genetic Encores: The Ethics of Human Cloning
The successful cloning of an adult sheep, announced in Scotland this past February, is one of the most dramatic recent examples of a scientific discovery becoming a public issue.

Human Cloning and Genetic Modification
The basic science you need to know...

Human Cloning: Yesterday's Never Is Today's Why Not? by Gina Kolata
Just nine months have passed since an astonished world got its first glimpse of Dolly the lamb, the first animal cloned from a cell taken from an adult. It was a feat that science had declared impossible.

Cloning by Douglas Dunn
The amazing reports of successfully-cloned adult mammals have been followed by a dialogue that is frightening in its fearful and outrageous tone. Once again we hear a chorus of gnashing teeth bewailing the onset of a "Brave New World" and fears of test-tube manufactured babies and a world populated by robotic armies of genetic sameness.

Resources:

Gene Cloning and Analysis Group - Profiling of Gene Expression in a Human Glioblastoma Cell Line Using the AtlasT Human cDNA Expression Array.

Cloning: Past, Present, and the Exciting Future by Marie A. Di Berardino, Ph.D. - Jimmy walks into the neighborhood pharmacy to fill his prescription for a protein he was born without. He lacks the gene for blood clotting factor IX and relies on the local drugstore for his medicine. Jimmy pulls open the bag that contains his 90-day supply of patches, removes the old patch from his chest, and attaches a new one...

Cloning - Will They Soon Clone Human Beings?

Human Cloning: the process - The following presents th e of cloning, the process of how "Dolly" was cloned, and the procedure of how to clone a human. Also presented is a brief outline of the arguments for and against human cloning.

Andrew Kimbrell on genetic engineering and its hazards - Sunday Morning Show, with Andrew Kimbrell, who is Executive Director of the International Centre for Technology Assessment in Washington, DC, and author of the book, The Human Body Shop, which speaks in detail about genetic engineering and its hazards.

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