Gene Technology Research Project

An overview of cloning

A clone is an organism or piece of genetic material that is genetically identical to one that was preexisting. This naturally happens during asexual reproduction, but scientists have made developments to make it possible to perform reproductive cloning an organism using a process known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (all will be explained in the "How Its Used" tab).

The first successful attempt of scnt on a mammal was on Dolly the sheep in 1997. Even considering this was performed 20 years ago from when this site was made, there are still some issues present with this type of cloning.

Some issues include the fact that the DNA is already aged since it came from another organism, therefore shortening the clone's lifespan. Along with this, clones typically are taller and wider than the organism they were cloned from.