Gene Cloning

Information on how genes, (usually proteins) or cells are cloned.

Gene Cloning Method

The purpose of any cloning experiment is to produce a clone, a group of identical cells or organisms.  We know that some plants can be cloned simply by taking cuttings, and that others can be cloned by growing whole plants from single cells collected from one plant. 

Even vertebrates can be cloned.  John Gurdon produced clones of identical frogs by transplanting nuclei from a single frog embryo to many enucleate eggs, and a sheep named Dolly was cloned in Scotland in 1997 using an enucleate egg and a nucleus from an adult sheep mammary gland.  Identical twins constitute a natural clone.

The procedure we usually follow in a gene cloning experiment is to place a foreign gene into a bacterial cell, then to grow a clone of these modified bacteria, with each bacterial cell containing the foreign gene.  Thus, as long as we ensure that the foreign gene can replicate, we can clone the gene by cloning its bacterial host.  Stanley Cohen, Herbert Boyer, and their colleagues performed the first cloning experiment in 1973.

Related Gene Cloning Articles:

DNA Cloning

Copyright Molecular Station 2006