Cloning In Focus

What Is Cloning?


1. Dolly is a cloned sheep.

2. When a zygote divides into two separate cells, it is called Artificial Embryo Twinning.

3. Somatic cells are also called adult cells.

4. In order to clone a gene, a gene is inserted into a donor egg.

5. In order to create an embryo from a somatic cell, the donor egg cell must have its nucleus removed.

Click And Clone

6. All the materials needed to clone a mouse:

1. Mouse that will be used to clone.
2. Egg cell donor
3. Surrogate mother to grow mouse clone
4. Microscope
5. Petri dishes
6. Sharp pipette
7. Blunt pipette
8. Chemical to stimulate cell division

7. The following steps in the correct order:

• 4. Stimulate cell division
• 6. Deliver baby
• 2. Remove and discard the nucleus from the egg cell
• 1. Isolate egg cells from egg donor and germ cell donor
• 3. Transfer the somatic cell nucleus into the egg cell
• 5. Implant embryo into a surrogate mother

8. There are two time gaps in the process of cloning. They are transferring the somatic cell nucleus into the egg cell and stimulating cell division.

9. The color the cloned mouse will be is brown. The name of this mouse is Mini-Mimi.

Why Clone?

10. Cloning extinct animals is problematic because of the lack of properly conserved DNA.

11. Some of the reasons a person might want to clone a human are to help infertile couples have children and to replace a deceased child. 

The Clone Zone

12. The animal that was cloned in 1885 was a sea urchin.

13. Spemann separated the two cells of the embryo of a salamander in 1902 by making a tiny noose out of baby hair and tightened it between the two cells.

14. The process of removing a nucleus is called nuclear transfer.

15. In 1952, the nucleus of a frog embryo was placed into a donor cell. It did not work to clone the animal.

16. The nucleus of an adult cell can be injected into an egg cell and produce a clone.

17. Mammals are hard to clone because mammalian egg cells are much smaller than those of a frog or salamander.

18. The names of the first two cloned cows were Fusion and Copy.

19. The National Bioethics Advisory Council was formed in 1995.

20. The first mammal clone to be produced from an adult (somatic) cell was Dolly the sheep.

21. Scientists fused early-stage embryonic cells with adult cells to make them "behave" like embryos.

22. Transgenic, cloned sheep were used to produce therapeutic proteins.

23. A stem cell is a cell that can become any type of cell in the human body.

Cloning Myths

24. CC the cat was not identical in color to Rainbow, even though she was a clone because the donated somatic cell from Rainbow had an activated black gene and an inactivated orange gene. However, as CC got older, the cell's inactivation pattern did not change like it should have, leaving CC black and white. (Rainbow was orange, black, and white.

25. Nature vs. Nurture means that, while genetics determine traits, the environment has a considerable impact on an individual's personality and appearance.

Is It Cloning Or Not?

26.

• NO Sperm taken from a male goat is combined with a female's egg in a Petri dish. The resulting embryo is implanted into the female's uterus to develop
• YES A sheep embryo, composed of 16 cells, is removed from the mother's uterus and separated into individual cells. Each cell is allowed to multiply, creating 16 separate embryos, which are then implanted in different female sheep to develop to maturity
• NO A cow with many desirable traits is stimulated with hormones to produce a number of egg cells Each of these eggs is fertilized and implanted into a surrogate mother
• NO In vitro fertilization
• YES Cell nuclei from an extinct wolly mammoth are placed into enucleated cow cells.

27.

• In vitro fertilization-When an embryo that is created through the fusion of the male's sperm and the female's egg.
• Embryo splitting-When embryos are split into several sections. Each of them will turn into an animal.
• Somatic cell nuclear transfer-When eggs are removed from a organism and their nuclei are removed and thrown away. Then, nuclei taken from another organism are inserted into the eggs.
• Multiple ovulation embryo transfer-When an organism with desirable traits is stimulated with hormones to produce a number of egg cells. These eggs are then implanted into another organism who does not have those desirable traits.
• Artificial insemination-When sperm from a male is used to impregnate many different females.

What are the risks of cloning?

28.  One reason why cloning animals has such a high failure rate is that an egg with a newly transferred nucleus may not begin to divide or develop properly.

29. A telomere is the DNA sequences at both ends of the chromosome. It affects cloned animals by expanding or shortening their lifespans.

What are some issues in cloning?

30.  If a clone originates from an existing person, who is the parent? I believe that, if a clone originates from an existing person, that existing person is the only true parent. However, if the clone was a female and the mother were to get married, both the male and the female in the marriage would have the title of "parent", even if the child may happen to be a clone of the mother.

 

Harvest Of Fear

Should we grow GM crops?

1. A GM crop is any food that is derived from organisms which have been genetically modified.

2. 2 arguments FOR the growing of GM crops: 1.GM crops will promise many health benefits. They will be healthier fot us than regular foods, and there will be less vitamin A deficiency deaths per year.
                                                                        2.Genetically modifying plants is completely natural, because they genetically modify themselves all the time; they've been doing this forever.

3. 2 arguments AGAINST the growing of GM crops: 1.GM foods may pose health risks for certain individuals, including introducing children to new allergies.
                                                                                 2.GM crops could harm the environment, and even other wildlife. Some bugs, to survive surrounded by the danger caused by GM crops, will have to become "superbugs." The same thing will also happen with weeds; they will become "superweeds."

Engineer A Crop

I had to practice this simulation twice until I got the largest ear of corn.

What's For Dinner?

Two foods and how they are being modified: 1. Fruit. Fruits, such as strawberries, pears, melons, apples, grapefruits, and watermelons are being modified by altering their sugar content, fruit ripening cycles, and pest resistance.
                                                                    2. Pizza. Scientists are testing GM varieties for all the ingredients in pizza, including cheese, wheat, green peppers, onions, and tomatoes. They are modifying rennet (a dried extract that is used to curdle milk for cheese) to speed up the process of making cheese and wheat that is used in bleached flour to make pizza more digestible. They are even modifying green peppers, onions, and tomatoes so that they stay fresh longer while in supermarkets, resist pests, and survive droughts.

Viewpoints

I do think food should be labled if it has been genetically modified, because no matter what has been done to the food, people deserve to know exactly what their eating.

Yahooligans Websites

http://www.eurekascience.com/ICanDoThat/gen_eng.htm

http://www.eco-pros.com/genetic_engineering.htm



  
             







                                                                     

DNA Fingerprinting

1. DNA is unique for everyone. The only exception is if a person has an identical twin.

2. DNA fingerprints are used for solving crimes.

3. The "crime" that was committed was that someone licked Jimmy's lollipop.

4. The bodily fluid that was removed from the crime scene to get DNA was saliva.

5. A restriction enzyme cuts long DNA molecules at different locations.

6. Agarose gel is a thick, porous, jello-like substance.

7. Electrophoresis is the process of moving molecules with an electric current.

8. Smaller fragments of DNA move more easily than longer strands.

9. You need to place a nylon membrane over the gel because it makes the agarose gel easier to work with.

10. Probes attach themselves to the DNA fragments on the nylon membrane.

11. The chemical that is radioactive in the "virtual lab" is the probes..

13. Based on my DNA fingerprint, Honey licked the lollipop.