Information about cloning

The word "clone" comes from the transliteration of "clone", which means "artificially induced asexual reproduction". It can be used as both a noun and a verb. When used as a noun, cloning refers to an invisible reproductive line; When used as a verb, cloning refers to the work of producing invisible reproductive lines by different methods. In short, cloning as a verb refers to the process of research or operation, and as a noun refers to the result.

Before Dolly was born, scientists had successfully cloned mice, cows, sheep, pigs and monkeys, but unlike these cloned animals, Dolly was transplanted from somatic cells rather than cloned from germ cells.

Cloning can be divided into gene cloning, cell cloning and individual cloning according to the objects it studies or operates. Gene cloning refers to carrying out research at the molecular (DNA) level to obtain a large number of identical genes and their expression products. Cell cloning is a research work at the cell level to obtain a large number of identical cells. Individual cloning is to create one or more individuals who are exactly the same as their parents through a series of operations. Biological materials used for cloning can be cells or tissues. Obviously, gene cloning, cell cloning and individual cloning are carried out at three different levels. Using the original gene, cell or organism as a template, multiple genes, cells or organisms identical to the original template are copied. This is a bit like copying materials with a copier or developing photos with film, and copying many identical materials or photos from original materials or negatives.

In the long-term production practice and scientific research, people have mastered many cloning technologies. The poem "If you have the heart to plant flowers, you can't open them, but if you don't have the heart to plant willow trees" is a household name. The "inserting willow" in the poem is actually a "cloning" process, that is, cutting willow branches into small pieces and inserting them into the soil. After a while, it can grow roots and grow into a small willow. When farmers grow sweet potatoes, they first cut a sweet potato vine into small pieces and then plant each small piece in the soil. After a few days, the sweet potato vine will grow roots and gradually grow into a complete sweet potato vine. Many similar examples can be cited in plants. Therefore, people should not be unfamiliar with cloning, but just turn a blind eye. In addition, scientists can use tissue culture technology to regenerate a complete plant from different tissues of many plants, and it has been widely used in production practice. This tissue culture technique is actually a cloning technique.