Concept explainers
Scientists have cloned a number of animal species, including mice, dogs, cats, horses, and cows. Could the technology of cloning be used to bring back extinct species? In principle, yes, provided that perfectly preserved DNA of the extinct species is available. Such DNA could be transferred to an egg from a closely related, living species, and the egg implanted in a surrogate mother of that species.
For example, researchers have suggested that it might be possible to clone a woolly mammoth, using an elephant surrogate mother and DNA extracted from 20,000-year-old mammoths found frozen beneath the Siberian tundra.
Most scientists, however, believe that any DNA recovered from a fossil mammoth would be far too degraded for use in cloning, and synthesizing an entire mammoth genome (its sequence is now almost fully known) is beyond the capabilities of current technology. The odds of success might be greater for another proposed project, which would use DNA from a preserved museum specimen to revive the Tasmanian tiger, an Australian mammal that has been extinct for only 70 years. If cloning recently extinct species proves to be possible, do you think it would be a good idea?
If Extinct Species Can Be Revived by Cloning?
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Biology
- The following diagram outlines how the process of cloning a sheep was accomplished. Cloning is the process of creating a genetically identical copy of another individual. With Dolly, the first cloned mammal, an egg cell was removed from a donor (B) and the nucleus was removed from the egg cell. Then cells from a sheep's mammary gland were removed from a second donor (A). The nucleus of one of the cells from the mammary gland was fused with the enucleated egg cell using an electrical pulse. The fused cell underwent cell division and at the blastocyst stage was implanted into a surrogate mother sheep. The percentage of genetic material that Dolly (the clone) had in common with Donor A is Select one: a. 25% b. 50% c. 100% d. 0%arrow_forwardWooly Mammoths have been extinct for about 10,000 years; however, their remains have been well persevered in Siberia. Due to global warming, these remains are now available to be recovered. Scientists want to extract the DNA and through cloning insert the DNA into an elephant to clone the mammoth. What are some of the pros and cons of cloning an extinct animal?arrow_forwardhttps://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/biotech-dna-technology/dna-cloning-tutorial/a/overview-dna-cloning That is the link for the example ^arrow_forward
- You just graduated from college and started working at a biotech startup called Scrofabulous. Your first job assignment is to clone the pig gene for the hormone prolactin. Assume that the pig gene for prolactin has not yet been isolated, sequenced, or mapped; What would be the most useful and economical first step to go about identifying and cloning the pig gene for prolactin? use the amino acid sequence of mouse prolactin to design a pair of degenerate oligonucleotide PCR primers to PCR-amplify the pig prolactin gene. RNAseq the pituitary gland of the pig, the most abundant gene is likely to to be prolactin Conduct a proteome search for peptides that match parts of mouse prolactin protein Sequence the pig genome, then translate the genome to find the gene predicted to encode for prolactin Crystalize the mouse prolactin protein and use Google's DeepMind Al to find the closest amino acid sequence in the pig proteomearrow_forwardNow that cloning is possible, should it be used to clone animals that are near extinction? What are the possible ramifications of this when it comes to genetic diversity and size of the gene pool?arrow_forwardThere are a range of ethical issues associated with cloning. However, many of these are not applied to cloning plants. Explain why the idea of cloning an entire plant is generally accepted while cloning an entire human is not.arrow_forward
- Q1) What is similar between molecular cloning and PCR?Q2) What is different from molecular cloning and PCR? Q3) What ‘horizontal gene transfer’ technique is utilized most often in cloning? (conjugation, transformation or transduction)arrow_forwardWhy is genetic imprinting is a major obstacle to the successful cloning of animals?arrow_forwardWhat are some of the technical challenges of cloning a mammoth? Check all that are true Ancient mammoth DNA has degraded so it is hard to know the complete genome sequence Mammoth gestation time is likely too short to allowing cloning A living surrogate mother would have to be used, which could pose problems since the closest relative to mammoths is endangered elephants A living oocyte would have to be obtained from an extant species, which could pose problems since the closest relative to mammoths is endangered elephants Mammoths lived so long ago that they used a different genetic code than modern animals There are no enzymes in existence that could ligate together mammoth DNA sequence with elephant sequence Mammoths probably had egg shells, which would be hard to penetrate with a needlearrow_forward
- In 1995, Hamilton Smith, Craig Venter and co-workers published the first complete genome sequence of a self-sustaining organism, that of the bacterium Haemophilus influenzae. Analysis of the genome sequence revealed that the organism does not have a gene that could encode a telomerase enzyme. What is the potential evolutionary consequence of this? Explain your answer.arrow_forwardAlthough a number of different animals have been successfully cloned, the process of creating cloned animals is very inefficient. Typically, only about 0.1% to 3% of attempts result in a live-born animal. What might be some of the reasons for this low rate of success?arrow_forwardGive typing answer with explanation and conclusion If you want to identify genes linked to autism in a mouse model, which genetic approach or approaches could you use? (Mark all that apply) A) Reverse Genetics B) Forward Genetics C) Optogenetics D) Population Geneticsarrow_forward
- Human Heredity: Principles and Issues (MindTap Co...BiologyISBN:9781305251052Author:Michael CummingsPublisher:Cengage Learning