Cellular Cloning:

Unicellular organisms like bacteria and yeast naturally produce clones through asexual
reproduction by binary fission.

During binary fission, nuclear DNA duplicates through mitosis, creating an exact replica of the
genetic material.

Reproductive Cloning:

Reproductive cloning involves cloning an entire multicellular organism.

Most multicellular organisms reproduce sexually, making it difficult to generate identical copies.

Advances in biotechnology enable scientists to induce asexual reproduction in mammals in the

laboratory.

Parthenogenesis, or virgin birth, is a form of asexual reproduction where an embryo develops

without fertilization.

In parthenogenesis, unfertilized eggs develop into haploid individuals, while fertilized eggs develop
into diploid individuals.

Reproductive cloning is based on the concept of somatic cell nuclear transfer, where a diploid
nucleus from a donor cell replaces the haploid nucleus of an egg cell.

The resulting zygote is genetically identical to the donor individual.

Dolly the sheep, born in 1996, was the first cloned animal using somatic cell nuclear transfer.

Success rates for reproductive cloning were initially low, and cloned animals often exhibited
abnormalities.

There have been attempts to produce cloned human embryos for therapeutic purposes,
particularly for obtaining embryonic stem cells to treat diseases.

Therapeutic cloning aims to produce stem cells for remedying diseases, while reproductive cloning
aims to replicate organisms.

Notes:

Cellular cloning occurs naturally in unicellular organisms through binary fission.

Reproductive cloning involves cloning entire multicellular organisms and has been achieved in
animals like Dolly the sheep.

The success of reproductive cloning has led to attempts at therapeutic cloning for medical
purposes.
 Ethical considerations surround the use of cloning technology, particularly regarding human
cloning and the use of cloned embryos for research.