Research Project "Is Cloning Beneficial or Harmful?"

Authors Avatar by huriya (student)

Cloning?

Huriya Nazari

Table of content                                              Page no.

  1. Introduction        ...............................................................3
  2. Cloning:
  1. recombinant cloning or DNA cloning……………...3-4
  1. Therapeutic cloning ………………………………..5-6
  2. Reproductive cloning……………………………… 7-8
  3. Arguments against human cloning…………………9
  4. Arguments for human cloning …………………….10
  1. reliability and validity of data obtained……………10
  2. Conclusion…………………………………………11-13
  3. Bibliography……………………………………….14-15                                        

 

3. Introduction

I am investigating the issues around cloning and whether it is a benefit to us or harmful.

4. Cloning

        

Cloning is asexual reproduction this is when only one parents chromosomes are inherited. This is why they are genetically identical. Examples of organisms that reproduce asexually are

  • Single-celled organisms like archaea, bacteria
  • Many plants
  • Fungi reproduce asexually.

There are different types of cloning, all with different cloning technologies and for different purposes; recombinant DNA technology or DNA cloning, reproductive cloning and therapeutic cloning.

4.1 Recombinant DNA or DNA cloning

 

DNA contains the genetic instruction to create an organism. DNA has two strands which go parallel to each other; this is because of the nitrogenous bases that project inwards and takes the space between them. Diagram 1 on the right shows the structure of the DNA. DNA is the most important factor in cloning.

The recombinant DNA technology is a technique for creating DNA molecules from unrelated organisms, ’. For example one of the DNA molecules is a bacterial or viral DNA, these are called cloning vectors. They have the ability to accept any other DNA molecule from an organism, which could be a human, monkey or bacterium, but often the bacterium E.Colli is used. If you combine these two DNA molecules, it will allow replication of many copies of the DNA inserted into the cloning vector.

Recombinant DNA technology has already been used to create identical copies of the same animals and to create entirely new species; like a GloFish, a type fish which glows a bright fluorescent coloring.

Some types of cloning have improved many lives. One example is the production of insulin for diabetic people. According to the charity Diabetes UK, more than half a million people in the UK have the insulin dependent condition of diabetes.

Method:

  • Step 1: Isolate the vector of DNA.
  • Step 2: Select a piece of DNA to be inserted into a vector.
  • Step 3: Cut the piece of DNA with restriction enzyme and insert it into a test. tube, where they are able to join each other and form recombinant DNA.
  • Step 3: To link them permanently, enzyme DNA ligase is used.
  • Step 5: Insert the recombinant plasmid DNA into a host cell, where the vector and DNA is replicated and the plasmid will multiply copies of itself, in the cell.

Other importance’s of Recombinant DNA are:

Recombinant DNA will have an impact in all areas, here are a few:

  • Better crops (drought and heat resistance)
  • Recombinant vaccines like hepatitis B
  • Prevention and cure of sickle cell anemia
  • Production of insulin
  • Cloning animals
  • Modified plants

There haven’t been many ethical or moral issues surrounding DNA cloning and they more of a benefit then a threat.

4.2 Therapeutic cloning

There are many ethical issues related to stem cell research. Stem cells are cells which are unspecialized. They have two main properties: they are capable of differentiate into any type of other cell and to self-regenerate. Although we have stem cells in bone marrow these can only be specialized into certain specialized cells such as white blood cells.

Different type of stem cells:

Embryonic stem cells-when a fertilized egg begins to divide which produces a group of stem cells called embryo.  This embryo is basically early stem cells which is called a totipotent; stem cells that can turn into any type of cell.

Blastocyst Embryonic stem cells-an embryo forms a hollow ball after 7 days of fertilization, this structure is called a Blastocyst. At the stage that the embryo is in Blastocyst stage it contains two types of cells: inner cell mass, which is formed by embryonic stem cells and eventually forms a fetus, and Trophoblast cells which forms a placenta on the outside of the ball eventually. This provides the nutrients for the fetus.

Pluripotent is the embryonic stem cells in the Blastocyst. The Pluripotent have the ability the change in almost most any kind of cell in the body.

Fetal stem cells-an embryo is referred to a fetus after eight weeks of development of the embryo. By this stage the stem cells in the fetus are responsible to form the growth of all of the tissues before the birth. Fetal stem cells are also Pluripotent.

Join now!

Umbilical cord stem cells-after the birth of the baby, also contain stem cells which are genetically identical to the new born baby. However the umbilical cord stem cells are Multipotent which can only differentiate into a limited variety of cell types. Also adult stem cells can sometimes not be used as they are already developed into tissues and are stem cells which are already directing their growth and maintenance during life.

However embryonic stem cells-when a fertilized egg begins to divide, are very useful and can be specialized into any type of cell, this can solve many degenerative ...

This is a preview of the whole essay