• Question: Has cloning been proved possible?

    Asked by b2kotacticzz to Mark on 14 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Mark Travis

      Mark Travis answered on 14 Jun 2010:

      If you mean cloning of animals, then yes, definitely is has been proven possible. Cloning involves taking genetic material (DNA) from a normal cell and transferring it to a female egg. As all the DNA comes from one animal, the resulting animal is a ‘clone’ of this animal.
      The first animal ever to be cloned was a frog in the 1950s. The first mammal to be cloned was a sheep in the 1990’s, and since then many different mammals have been cloned, including mice, cows, pigs, goats and monkeys. The techniques are still not perfect though, and a lot of times it doesn’t work (in that the clone does not develop properly and isn’t born). But techniques are improving. No humans cloned yet, as there are obviously a lot of ethical issues (and technical issues) associated with this. But yes, cloning has definitely been proven possible in many animals.

Comments

  • Photo: Sarah

    Sarah commented on :

    Many of you may think Dolly The Sheep was the first mammal cloned but it wasn’t, Dolly was the first mammal cloned from adult cells which is why it was made famous as it meant that we can reprogramme adult cells to act like immature cells.
    I cloned a sheep that was genetically modified to have a deleted gene that was responsible for a disease in sheep called Scrapie (sheep version of Mad Cow disease).