Cloning Methods

Cloning is the process of producing populations of genetically-identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments (molecular cloning), cells (cell cloning), or organisms.


Molecular cloning
Molecular cloning refers to the process of making multiple copies of a defined DNA sequence. Cloning is frequently used to amplify DNA fragments containing whole genes, but it can also be used to amplify any DNA sequence such as promoters, non-coding sequences and randomly fragmented DNA. It is used in a wide array of biological experiments and practical applications ranging from genetic fingerprinting to large scale protein production.


Cellular cloning
Cloning a cell means to derive a population of cells from a single cell. In the case of unicellular organisms such as bacteria and yeast, this process is remarkably simple and essentially only requires the inoculation of the appropriate medium. However, in the case of cell cultures from multi-cellular organisms, cell cloning is an arduous task as these cells will not readily grow in standard media.


Cloning in stem cell research
Somatic cell nuclear transfer can also be used to create a clonal embryo. The most likely purpose for this is to produce embryos for use in research, particularly stem cell research. This process is also called "research cloning" or "therapeutic cloning." The goal is not to create cloned beings, but rather to harvest stem cells that can be used to study human development and to potentially treat disease. While a clonal blastocyst has been created, stem cell lines are yet to be isolated from a clonal source.


Organism cloning
Organism cloning refers to the procedure of creating a new multicellular organism, genetically identical to another. In essence this form of cloning is an asexual method of reproduction, where fertilization or inter-gamete contact does not take place. Asexual reproduction is a naturally occurring phenomenon in many species, including most plants and some insects.

Horticultural
The term clone is used in horticulture to mean all descendants of a single plant, produced by vegetative reproduction or apomixis. Many horticultural plant cultivars are clones, having been derived from a single individual, multiplied by some process other than sexual reproduction. Grafting can be regarded as cloning, since all the shoots and branches coming from the graft are genetically a clone of a single individual.

Many trees, shrubs, vines, ferns and other herbaceous perennials form clonal colonies. Parts of a large clonal colony often become detached from the parent, termed fragmentation, to form separate individuals. Some plants also form seeds asexually, termed apomixis, e.g. dandelion.

Parthenogenesis
Clonal derivation exists in nature in some animal species and is referred to as parthenogenesis (reproduction of an organism by itself without a mate).

Reproductive cloning
Reproductive cloning uses "somatic cell nuclear transfer" (SCNT) to create animals that are genetically identical. This process entails the transfer of a nucleus from a donor adult cell (somatic cell) to an egg which has no nucleus. If the egg begins to divide normally it is transferred into the uterus of the surrogate mother.

Such clones are not strictly identical since the somatic cells may contain mutations in their nuclear DNA. Additionally, the mitochondria in the cytoplasm also contains DNA and during SCNT this DNA is wholly from the donor egg, thus the mitochondrial genome is not the same as that of the nucleus donor cell from which it was produced. This may have important implications for cross-species nuclear transfer in which nuclear-mitochondrial incompatibilities may lead to death.

Flash Cloning is a medical process whereby organic body parts are cloned. This usually involves a sample of a subject's DNA which is used to grow a clone of an organ or body part, which can then be transplanted into the subject where the DNA came from. This way, organ transplants are faster and easier and the rate of success is far higher. Usually the organ is programmed to grow at an accelerated rate, then to cease rapid development when transplanted into the subject. Therefore, the organ grows quickly and functions properly and efficiently. Since the organ contains the same subject's DNA, there is no threat of rejection by the body.

Flash cloning whole beings is often imperfect, and it is illegal for someone who is unauthorized to flash clone. An embryo is taken and developed a hundred times faster than it would have naturally, becoming something different than it would have been. Many anomalies appear because flash clones are forced to develop too quickly. Flash clones have none of the memories of their hosts, including the natural behavioral training most beings get observing people while growing up. They can be trained with intensive therapy, but often after a month or two, they start to degenerate from metabolic instability in a process called "Metabolic Cascade Failure" until they die from various neurological and physiological diseases.


Usage for Creating AIs
As an actual brain is required for the creation of a Smart AI, since a brain is essentially destroyed during the process of creating the AI the use of the brain of a deceased person is often used.