Cloning

What is Cloning?

1. Who is Dolly? Dolly is a sheep that showed up in genetic research in 1997, cloning was experimented on long before Dolly was around though. Somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) uses a different approach than artificial embryo twinning, but it produces the same result; an exact clone or gene copy, this was the method used to make Dolly the sheep.

2. When a zygote divides into to separate cells, it is called: Embryo Twinning

3. Somatic cells are also called: Diploid cells.

4. In order to clone a gene, a gene is inserted into a plasmid.

5. In order to create an embryo from a somatic cell, the donor egg cell must have its nucleusremoved.

Click and Clone

6. List all the materials needed to clone a mouse.

Microscope, petri dishes, sharp pipette, blunt pipette, chemical to stimulate cell division, Mimi (mouse we will clone, brown), Megdo (egg cell donor, black), Momi (surrogate mother to grow Mimi clone, white)

7. Place the following steps in the correct order.

4. Stimulate cell division
6. Deliver baby
2. Remove and discard the nucleus from the egg cell
1. Isolate donor cells from egg donor and germ cell donor
3. Transfer the somatic cell nucleus into the egg cell
5. Implant embryo into a surrogate mother

8. There are two time gaps in the process of cloning. What are they? (ie. what do you have to wait for?)

The first time gap that you have to wait for is the time that the nucleus and the cell need a couple of hours to adjust to each other. The second gap is when the cell needs time to divide a few times creating a ball of 16 cell sin the perti dish, this may take several hours.

9. What color with the cloned mouse be? brown What is the name of this mouse? Mini-Mimi

Why Clone?

10. Why is cloning extinct animals problematic?

Cloning extinct animals is a problematic scientific agenda due to a little reasoning logic. To illustrate this point, take dinosaurs, for example. These dinosaurs, if reproduced in the current era, would have a terrible time adapting to the current atmosphere, environment, and the capacity that the animals utilize would behoove a major issue in the near future. Of course, this possibility is theoretically feasible, due to the fact that scientists could produce a well-preserved source of DNA from the extinct dinosaur, and a closely related species, currently living, that could serve as a surrogate mother.

11. What are some reasons a person might want to clone a human?

There are infinite reasons why one may want, or even need, to clone a human. However, the chief rationales include:

providing infertile couples with a child.

to replace a deceased child.

to help gay partners have children.

In theory, cloning humans are just as, if not more, viable when it comes to statistics and thesis. Unfortunately, not all consider the legal and ethical perspective of the issue, resulting in a global controversy on the main topic.

The Clone Zone

12. What animal was cloned in 1885?

The sea urchin was cloned in 1885 by a scientist by the name of Hans Adolf Edward Dreisch. In this experiment, Hans discovered that the action of shaking two-celled sea urchin embryos, the cells could then be divided. The consequences of these actions resulted in two, complete sea-urchin organisms.

13. How did Spemann separate the two cells of the embryo of a salamander in 1902?

Spemann separated the two cell of the embryo of a salamander in 1902 by sculpting a noose (fabricated from baby hair), and constricted the bond, thus dividing the unit into two cells. They developed into normal adult salamanders, opposed to those with advanced embryos.

14. The process of removing a nucleus is called enucleating.

15. In 1952, the nucleus of a frog embryo cell was placed into a donor cell. Did it work to clone the animal?

The cloning did, in fact, prove successful in correlation with the standard embryo. The scientists Robert Briggs and Thomas King devised a process, which involved: isolating the nucleus from a donor cell (early tadpole embryo), remove the recipient's from egg cell through enucleation, and ultimately reuniting the donor nucleus and the recipient egg. Although their earlier results were triumphant, their outcomes with the advanced nucleus were very similar to Hans Spemann's with his salamander lab. These particular frogs either died off or developed an abnormality in later life.

16. Can the nucleus of an adult cell be injected into an egg cell and produce a clone?

Yes it can. When using Briggs and King's operation, the nucleus of an adult cell can be injected into an egg cell and produce a clone. In fact, cloning doesn't necessarily mean to develop a fully complete, adult organism. Scientists from the Advanced Cell Technology company have discovered a therapeutical advantage when it comes to cloning. This works when the patient is cloned, individual stem cells are created by an embryo in its early stages, which are then grown in a laboratory, and utilized to repair damaged regions with tissue that is identical to those that were impaired.

17. Why are mammals hard to clone?

Yes it can. When using Briggs and King's operation, the nucleus of an adult cell can be injected into an egg cell and produce a clone. In fact, cloning doesn't necessarily mean to develop a fully complete, adult organism. Scientists from the Advanced Cell Technology company have discovered a therapeutical advantage when it comes to cloning. This works when the patient is cloned, individual stem cells are created by an embryo in its early stages, which are then grown in a laboratory, and utilized to repair damaged regions with tissue that is identical to those that were impaired.

18. What were the names of the first two cloned cows?

Fusion and Copy were the names of the first two cloned cows, twinned by scientists Neal First, Randal Prather, and Willard Eyestone.

19. In what year was the National Bioethics Advisory Council formed?

1995 saw the formation of the National Bioethics Advisory Council, organized by president Bill Clinton, who just so happened to demean cloning, yet still provide experts with the materials to investigate the therapeutical standpoint on the matter. The council consisted of both scientific and non-scientific experts focusing on the legal, ethical, and religious aspects of cloning.

20. The first mammal clone to be produced from an adult (somatic) cell?

Dolly the sheep was the first mammal clone to be produced from an adult somatic cell.

21. What do scientists do to adult cells to make them "behave" like embryos?

Scientists remove the nucleus of somatic cell, and transfer it into the enucleated egg cell, reprogramming it to behave like embryos.

22. Transgenic, cloned sheep were used to produce what medical protein?

The transgene that was inserted in the donor somatic cells was designed to express human clotting factor IX protein in the milk of sheep. This protein plays an essential role in blood coagulation and deficiency leads to the disease Haemophilia B of which treatment requires intravenous infusion of factor IX. The production of this protein in livestock milk, a process known as pharming, would provide a source of this therapeutic protein that would reduce the cost and also would be free of potential infectious risk associated with the current source of this protein (human blood).

23. What is a stem cell? A stem cell is a cell that upon division replaces its own numbers and also gives rise to cells that differentiate further into one or more specialized types, as various B cells and T cells.

Cloning Myths

24. Briefly describe in your own words, why CC the cat was not identical in color to Rainbow, even though she was a clone?

Early in Rainbow's development, Rainbow's turned off an entire X chromosome, either the black fur coat color gene, or the orange fur coat color gene. This process most often happens in females and this process is called X-inactivication, and this process happens in order to prevent females from having as twice as much X-chromosomes as males.

25. What is "nature vs nurture"?

Basically, this means that while genetics can help determine traits, environmental influences have a considerable impact on shaping an individual's physical appearance and personality. For example, do you know any identical twins? They are genetically the same, but do they really look and act exactly alike?

Is it Cloning or Not?

26. For each of the following scenarios, indicate YES (it is cloning) or NO (it is not cloning)

NO Sperm taken from a mole goat is combined with a female's egg in a petri dish. The resulting embryo is implanted into the female's uterus to develop
YES A sheep embryo, composed of 16 cells, is removed from the mother's uterus and separated into individual cells. Each cell is allowed to multiply, creating 16 separate embryos, which are then implanted in different female sheep to develop to maturity.
NO A cow with many desirable traits is stimulated with hormones to produce a number of egg cells. Each of these eggs is fertilized and implanted into a surrogate mother.
NO In vitro fertilization
YES Cell nuclei from an extinct wolly mammoth are placed into enucleated cow cells.

27. Define or describe each of the following processes (you may need to reset the Cloning or Not Screen)

Invitro fertilization

In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process by which egg cells are fertilised by sperm outside the body, in vitro.

Embryo splitting

Separation of an early-stage embryo into two or more embryos with identical genetic makeup, essentially creating identical twins or higher multiples (triplets, quadruplets, etc.).

Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer

Somatic cell nuclear transplantation: moving a cell nucleus and its genetic material from one cell to another

Multiple Ovulation Embryo Transfer

Multiple ovulation embryo transfer is a way to produce an animal of certain genetic qualities faster.
The multiple ovulation part is where the female animal is manipulated hormonally to produce more than the usual number of eggs during ovulation. The chosen male's semen, containing the genes you are selecting are placed to fertilise the eggs in the female. the new embryos are then removed from the female before they are attached to the uterine wall. This is the embryo transfer part. Other female animals are used because their oestrous cycle is at the right point to recieve the embryo. Hormones can be used to manipulate the recieving animal's oestrous cycle aswell.

Artificial Insemination

Artificial insemination, or AI, is the process by which sperm is placed into the reproductive tract of a female for the purpose of impregnating the female by using means other than sexual intercourse.

What Are the Risks of Cloning?

28. What is one reason why cloning animals has such a high failure rate?

Cloning animals through somatic cell nuclear transfer is simply inefficient. The success rate ranges from 0.1 percent to 3 percent, which means that for every 1000 tries, only one to 30 clones are made. Or you can look at it as 970 to 999 failures in 1000 tries. That's a lot of effort with only a speck of a return!

Why is this? Here are some reasons:

• The enucleated egg and the transferred nucleus may not be compatible
• An egg with a newly transferred nucleus may not begin to divide or develop properly
• Implantation of the embryo into the surrogate mother might fail
• The pregnancy itself might fail

29. What is a telomere and how does it affect cloned animals?

A telomere is a region of repetitive DNA at the end of a chromosome, which protects the end of the chromosome from deterioration. In cloned animals the telomere length is shorter than naturally uncloned animals.

What Are Some Issues in Cloning?

30. Pick one of the questions to ponder and ....ponder it. Write a brief essay on your thoughts and opinions.

My question is What are the risks of cloning technologies? My thoughts on this are that there are many many risks in cloning, and even cloning technologies. There will always be mistakes because we are only human and we can't possible be perfect in everything that we do, but if this mistake may end someone's life or injure them in any way then that is just not right. If the clone or cells of the future clone aren't inserted into the surrogate mother correctly then there might be many complications.

Harvest of Fear

Should we Grow GM Crops?

Instructions: Read the page and click YES or NO, reach the next...click YES or NO...etc until you’ve read all the arguments -- You will need to do this 12 times in order for your votes to be tallied. Navigate the site, each of the bold headings below are links within the site


1. What is a GM Crop.
Genetically modified foods are derived form genetically modified organisms. Genetically modified organisms have had specific changes introduced into their DNA genetic engineering techniques. GM crop farming is expanded rapidly around around the world. Global acreage of GM crop has risen 25-fold in just four years, from approximately 4.3 million acres in 1996 to about 100 million acres in 1999. Industry, government, and many academic scientists tout the benefits of GM foods for agriculture, ecosystems, and human health and well-being, including feeding a world population bursting at the seams. Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genetic make material in a way that does not occur under natural conditions. GM crops have enhanced taste an quality than naturally grown crops, their maturing time is reduced, increased nutrients, yields, and stress tolerance, improved resistance to disease, pests, and herbicides, and new products and growing techniques.


2. List 2 arguments FOR the growing of GM crops

1. What if you knew that proponents assert that GM foods will promise many health benefits?

a. GM foods will be better for us, with some products that are already working and ones that benefit our waistlines and other bearing higher nutritional content.

2. What if you knew that advocates maintain that GM technology will help the environment?

a. In the U.S. alone, farmers spray, spread, and otherwise administer more than 970 million tons of insect- and plant-killers every year. These pose threats to the environment. Pesticide residues linger on crops and in soil, find their way into the guts of wildlife that eat contaminated foliage, and leach into groundwater and wash into streams. If a crop boasts its own ability to resist invertebrate predators, then farmers can use far fewer chemicals

3. List 2 arguments AGAINST the growing of GM crops.

1. What if you knew that detractors fear that GM food might pose health risks for certain people?

a. Some people, including children, are highly allergic to peanuts, wheat, dairy, and other foods, and some critics of GM foods think that GM foods have the possibility to cause and unintentionally introduce new allergies.

2. What if you knew that opponents fear that GM crop technology will hurt small farmers?

a. Critics of GM agriculture insist that patenting genetically altered crops, as agribusiness is rushing to do, will make small farmers indentured to big firms. Monsanto, one of the biggest players in the field, is currently suing dozens of North American farmers whom it claims have raised its patented GM crops without paying for the privilege.

Engineer a Crop

4. Practice this simulation until you get the largest ears of corn. How many times did it take you?
It took me 3 times to get the largest years of corn in 4 seasons.


What’s for Dinner?
5. List two foods and desribe how they are being modified.
Pizza: For each of the ingredients you might find in pizza, including cheese, wheat, green peppers, onions, and tomatoes, scientists are testing GM varieties. They are modifying rennet, a dried extract used to curdle milk for cheese, to speed the cheese-making process, wheat used in bleached flour to be more easily digestible and produce greater yields; and green peppers, onions, and tomatoes to stay fresh longer in supermarkets, resist pests, and survive droughts.

Fruit: Plant geneticists are testing almost any fruit you can think of for your GM variety approval. Strawberries, pears, melons, apples, grapefruit, and watermelons with altered sugar content, fruit ripening cycles, and pests resistance may be hitting your local produce aisle soon.

Viewpoints
Do you think food should be labeled if it has been genetically modified? Why or Why not?

Yes, I think that genetically modified food should be labeled. The FDA refused to require labeling of genetically modified foods, against the advice of its own scientists, and I find that very alarming. Also the FDA put out a political document, not a scientific one, that said that GM foods are no different than naturally grown foods without modifiers, and therefore they don't have to be labeled to even regulated differently. Genetically modified food should be labeled because some people might have allergies to that modifier, or that modifier might cause a disease or a virus and I think that the public deserves to know what they are consuming and what their families are putting in their bodies.

DNA Fingerprinting

Introduction:

1. DNA is unique for everyone. The only exception is if a person has what?
The only exception is identical twins.

2. What are DNA fingerprints used for?
DNA fingerprints can be used for anything from determining a biological mother or father to identifying the suspect of a crime.

Part 1 “It Takes a Lickin”

3. What “crime” was committed?
Some one entered Jimmy's room, opened his holographic lollipop and licked it.

4. What bodily fluid was removed from the “crime scene” to get DNA?
Saliva was removed from the lollipop and taken in for testing.

Part 2 “DNA Fingerprinting at the NOVA Lab”

5. What does a restriction enzyme do?
The restriction enzymes work like scissors and cut the DNA into portions according to the pattern.

6. What is agarose gel?
Agarose gel is a thick, porous, jelly-like substance.

7. What is electrophoresis?
Electrophoresis is the process of moving molecules by using electric currents.

8. Smaller fragments of DNA move ____________ than longer strands?
more easily through the gel

9. Why do you need to place a nylon membrane over the gel?
I placed the nylon membrane over the gel so that the DNA could be absorbed into it.

10. Probes attach themselves to __________
DNA fragments on the membrane.

11. Which chemical in your “virtual lab” is radioactive?
The probes are radioactive.

12. Sketch your DNA fingerprint.

file:///Users/sstahm/Desktop/Screen%20shot%202010-11-24%20at%208.50.20%20AM.png

13. Based on your DNA fingerprint, who licked the lollipop?
According to my DNA fingerprint, Honey licked the lollipop.

14. What kinds of things could you do at the DNA workshop?

You can be moved into a cell and be involved with replication and cell protein synthesis.

15. Read an article about genetics at this site that you might find interesting, or use the "Search" box in the upper right hand corner to search for DNA fingerprinting.

Title of Article

DNA Fingerprinting

Author and Date WebMD Medical Reference from Healthwise April 20, 2009

Epigenetics and the Environment

Identical Twins: Pinpointing Environmental Impacts on the Epigenome
1. The video that we watched was about identical twins and their genetic make up. Identical twins are the same genetically, but their epigenomes are different, it depends on what type of environment the twins are in. One of them might be really healthy and exercise and the other might just sit on the couch and eat junk food and they may be exposed to toxins like smoke. Their epigenome becomes increasingly different with age because their epigenetic tags are in different places, this is caused by the different environments that each twin is in, like I mentioned before.

2. Some environmental factors that influence your epigenome are your diet, stress, exercise, and the types of pollution or different toxins that you are exposed to.

3. Imprinted genes are genes who's expression is determines by the parents that contributed them. Imprinted genes violate the usual rule of inheritance that both alleles in a heterozygote are equally expressed. Genomic imprinting is a genetic phenomenon by which certain genes are expressed in a parent-of-origin-specific manner. It is an inheritance process independent of the classical Mendelian inheritance. Imprinted genes are either expressed only from the allele inherited from the mother.

Your environment, Your Epigenome
1. Some factors that would affect your epigenome would be diet, exercise, and stress. If someone only eats junk food and doesn't exercise then their epigenome would be much different from someone that have a healthy diet and exercises 2-5 times a week. Diet is very important and if you have a bad diet then you will get fat and then you have a greater chance of getting deseases that have to do with your weight like diabetes.

Lick your Rats
1. If the rat has a high- nurturing mother then it does help the rats epigenome. The rat will be more calm later in life due to the high nurturing that its mother gave it. If the rat had a low- nurturing then the rat will be more stressed out later in life and the rat will not be able to deal with stress well.

2. When the mother licks the rat pup and nurtures it then the GR gene is activated.

3. Inside the brain sits a structure called the hippocampus. One job of the hippocampus is to coordinate the body's response to stress. In the hippocampus cells produce a little or a lot of GR protein depending on how much the pup was nurtured. During the "fight or flight" response, the hormone cortisol is released into the blood stream. Cortisol binds GR protein causing the cell to send out calming signals. Rats who have a lot of GR protein relax quickly after stress. Rats with little GR protein remain stressed for much longer.

4. A human mother and a rat mother are the same, except for a rat is furry, but they are the same with how they treat their offspring or their children. A rat mother will lick their child to make them calmer and less stressed, a human mother will do that to but not by licking their kids. A human mother will care for the child, be nice, and feed it and that will help the childs epigenome, and their social and personal levels.

Nutrition and the Epigenome
1. The food we eat affects gene expression by high methyl foods causing major alters in our gene expression as seen in the rats.

2. Yes. They affect the genome of their offspring in ways such as producing enough, or the correct, amount of chemicals or nutrients needed to survive. If the parent is eating unhealthy they may have trouble with doing this and may hurt the development of the offspring.

Epigenetics and the Human Brain
1. More methyl means less rRNA production, which means fewer ribosomes, which means less protein production.

2. DNA methylation stabilize gene expression, which is important for long-term storage of information.

Mitosis by Una and Austin

Mitosis Tutorial

1. Which stage does the following occur
Chromatin condenses into chromosomes
Prophase
Chromosomes align in center of cell.
Metaphase
Longest part of the cell cycle.
Interphase
Nuclear envelope breaks down.
Prometaphase
Cell is cleaved into two new daughter cells.
Anaphase
Daughter chromosomes arrive at the poles.
Telophase

The colored chromosomes represent chromatids. There are two of each color because one is an exact duplicate of the other.
How many chromosomes are visible at the beginning of mitosis? 8

How many are in each daughter cell at the end of mitosis? 4

The little green T shaped things on the cell are: centrioles

What happens to the centrioles during mitosis? They will divide after the DNA replicates.

3 . Identify the stages of these cells:

Telophase

Metaphase

Prophase

Another Mitosis Animation

(I tried to put the boxes in but it didn't really work!)
Prophase- The nucleus is in the center of the cell, and the chromosomes are in the middle of the nucleus.
Metaphase- The centrioles are being pulled to the opposite sides. There are also many spindle fibers connected to the centrioles and the chromosomes are in the middle.
Telophase- The chromosomes are in V shapes and the spindle fibers are connected to the centrioles.

Onion Root Tip - Online Activity

Read the introduction, then click the “next” button.

You will have 36 cells to classify. When you’re finished, record your data in the chart below.

Interphase Prophase Metaphase Anaphase Telophase Total

Number of Cells 20 10 3 2 1 36

Percent of Cells 56% 28% 8% 6% 2% 100%

Mitosis in Whitefish & Onion Roots

For each organism, identify the stage of mitosis.

View 1 View 2 View 3 View 4 View 5

White fish Telophase Metaphase Prophase Telophase NONE

Onion Anaphase Prophase Interphase Interphase Telophase