What process is used to create a clone?
1 Answer
Mitosis.
Explanation:
When you're talking about a clone, you're talking about an organism completely identical to the organism that you're trying to clone, the parent organism.
It's easiest to picture with cells. Say you have a cell, and you want to clone it. This means that you want an identical set of DNA, or the genetic material (because it is what makes everything what it is) in the clone, or the daughter cell. Luckily, nature has you covered.
In the process of mitosis or cell division, the cell literally creates clones of itself - daughter cells with the same exact copy of DNA that the parent cell has. So every time a cell undergoes mitosis, you get a cell clone.
For a more in-depth explanation of what mitosis is and how it happens, here's a link to a crash course video:
If you want to know how actual clones are made, then that's another story. If you're talking about a plant clone, plant cuttings are an example of cloning. What you do there, is you cut off a small piece of a leaf (or another part containing stem cells) of your plant of choice, and then leave it for a little bit in water. You will see roots developing after a few weeks. It's pretty neat.
If however, cloning animals is your thing, then what the technique so far is is to empty a donor egg cell, then implant a nucleus of say, a skin cell of the organism you are trying to clone into the empty donor egg cell and then implant that into the donor's womb. Then you hope for the best and if everything goes well, you will have a perfectly healthy clone of the organism you were trying to clone in the first place. That's how Dolly the sheep came to be (surely you've heard of her?)
Here's some more on the process used in making Dolly:
Or this one here:
Hope I've answered your question :)
