There are two main types of cloning.  There is molecular cloning, where scientists create multiple copies of a gene to study and there is reproductive cloning, where scientists make a copy of an entire multicellular organism.  A clone is an exact genetic copy of an organism; however, clones only share genetic similarities.  Clones may not have the same phenotype as the donor and will not have the same personality.  Cloning happens naturally, such as identical twins, and artificially, such as Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer cloning.  Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer or SCNT is when scientists take a somatic cell (any cell in the body other than reproductive cells) and a donor egg cell.  The scientists then remove the nucleus and DNA from the egg cell.  Next, the scientists insert the nucleus from the somatic cell into the egg cell.  The egg develops into an embryo and is implanted into a surrogate mother.  Another way to perform reproductive cloning is Artificial Embryo Twinning.  This is very similar to the natural process for identical twins.  In a petri dish, scientists divide an early embryo into individual cells.  These cells divide and develop and are placed in a surrogate mother.

The biggest advancement for cloning is by far Dolly the sheep.  Dolly was the first mammal to be successfully created by SCNT.  After 277 failed attempts, Wilmut and Campbell (the two scientists who created Dolly) finally succeed in July of 1996.  To create Dolly, Wilmut and Campbell transferred “the nucleus from an adult sheep’s udder cell into an enucleated egg.” (The History of Cloning, 9) This was extremely difficult because adult cells shut off genes they do not need for their function.  The scientists had to reset the donor adult cell into an embryonic state before inserting the nucleus into the donor egg cell.  Unfortunately, like most cloned animals, Dolly suffered from health issues and only lived six-and-a-half years.  Dolly brought cloning into the media which sparked ethical debates on human cloning and stem cell cloning.

Cloning is best used in medicine because it can be used in many ways and it can help to save lives.  Cloning of DNA segments is done often and can help scientists reproduce specific types of cells to research.  Scientists also clone animals to be used as models of disease.  Scientists study human diseases on animals including mice but to do this, they have to bread the animals and hope they carry the mutation in their genes.  This takes a long time but cloning “could help reduce the time needed to make a transgenic animal model, and the result would be a population of genetically identical animals for study.” (Cloning in Medicine, 3)  The most useful part of cloning in medicine is cloning to make stem cells.  Stem cells are the cells that build and repair one’s body throughout their life.  Stem cells can be “manipulated to repair damaged or diseased organs and tissues” (Cloning in Medicine, 4) and are sometimes transplanted from one person to another.  These transplants trigger an immune response because they are seen as foreign and possibly dangerous.  This can be extremely dangerous to the person who received the transplant.  Scientists are researching a way to clone stem cells so they have the same genotype has the receiver of the transplant.  This would prevent the person from having an immune response because the stem cells would be genetically identical.  Scientists at the Oregon Health and Science University were able to create human embryonic stem cells using cloning from an eight-month-old who had a rare genetic disease.  Cloning is extremely useful in the medical field and could change how we look at medicine in the future.

Cloning changing our world is inevitable whether it is in drug production, reviving endangered or extinct species, or the medical field.  Farms animals can be genetically engineered so they produce proteins that are helpful in medicine.  If scientists clone farm animals to carry a specific protein gene then all the offspring of the cloned farm animals would also carry the gene since all the cells in the farm animal would carry the protein gene.  Scientists are also attempting to clone extinct and endangered species.  It is theoretically possible to clone extinct animals but realistically one would need a perfect sample of DNA from the extinct animal and a closely related species to be an egg donor and surrogate mother.  It is much easier for scientists to clone endangered species because they have a living animal to be the donor for the DNA however this may not help the species because it would create a lack of genetic diversity, one of the causes of the species originally getting endangered.  The most helpful change cloning will cause is a change in the medical field.  As discussed above, cloning is extremely useful in the medical field and may save many lives in the future; however, not everyone is supportive of cloning in the medical field.  There is a huge ethical and legal debate when it comes to cloning humans.  Most people are against it and say that it is immoral but there are supporters.  Most supporters see cloning as a solution to infertility but some go so far as to dream of cloning geniuses to help society and create farms of clones for organ harvesting.  Many opposers to cloning humans are also against the cloning of stem cells and say it is to close to the line of cloning humans.  Cloning is going to affect our world in the future as it advances, for better or for worse.

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Bibliography:

“10.1 Cloning and Genetic Engineering – Concepts of Biology.” OpenStax, openstax.org/books/concepts-biology/pages/10-1-cloning-and-genetic-engineering.

Ayala, Francisco J. “Cloning Humans? Biological, Ethical, and Social Considerations.” PNAS, National Academy of Sciences, 21 July 2015, www.pnas.org/content/112/29/8879#sec-5.

Genetic Science Learning Center. “The History of Cloning.” Learn.GeneticsLearn.Genetics, University of Utah, learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/cloning/clonezone/.

Genetic Science Learning Center. “What Is Cloning.” Learn.Genetics, University of Utah, learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/cloning/whatiscloning/.

Genetic Science Learning Center. “Why Clone?” Learn.Genetics, University of Utah, learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/cloning/whyclone/.