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Asked by coolskeleton to Dalya, Derek, Sarah, Tim, Tom on 19 Jun 2011.
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Tim Millar answered on 13 Jun 2011:
When one cell or organism splits into two and has all the same genetic material as the original cell, then its a clone. Many bacteria grow like this and our immune system also increases the numbers of cells in this way. This is a quick way to grow but also a risky one as there is less ability to adapt to a change in the environment
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Dalya Soond answered on 13 Jun 2011:
Technically, a clone is an exact genetic replica.So like if you had an identical twin, you theoretically have the exact same DNA. Or when one of your cells divides, it will also be a clone of the other cells in your body.
I say that theoretically there should be identical genes, but when a cell divides it can often make small mistakes that usually make no difference, but sometimes do and can cause diseases like cancer.
In biology labs, we often use things we call clones to get a large amount of DNA from bacteria that divide very quickly. So for instance we will 1) put into bacteria a plasmid which will carry the DNA encoding a gene we might be interested in learning more about, then 2) let the bacteria divide and make many copy of the plasmid, then 3) plate out the bacteria on an agar plate (have you seen those -they’re like a bowl of Jelly) 4) the bacteria will grow in clumps then 5) you can scoop up a clump, break open the bacteria pull out the plasmid, and have many many copies of your gene.
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Derek McKay-Bukowski answered on 13 Jun 2011:
A clone is an organism that is a genetic copy of another organism.
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Sarah Thomas answered on 13 Jun 2011:
A clone is an organism that has identical DNA to another. There are lots of examples of natural clones in biology, for example: the cutting from a plant that grows into a new plant, asexual reproduction, and twins (must be identical i.e. boy-boy, or girl-girl).
Research has been done into creating clones in the lab and the most famous examples of this is Dolly the sheep. Dolly was cloned from an adult sheep at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh in 1996. She lived until the age of 6 which is young for a sheep. She suffered from a range of age-related diseases such as arthiritis due to the age of her DNA.
Clones were also soldiers in Star Wars!
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Tom Crick answered on 19 Jun 2011:
Already answered, but a clone is a genetic copy of another organism.
Have you heard of Dolly the sheep?
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