Aclone is a group ofidentical cells that share acommon ancestry, meaning they are derived from the same cell.[1]
Clonality implies the state of a cell or a substance being derived from one source or the other. Thus there are terms likepolyclonal—derived frommany clones;oligoclonal[2]—derived from afew clones; andmonoclonal—derived fromone clone. These terms are most commonly used in context ofantibodies orimmunocytes.
This concept of clone assumes importance as all the cells that form a clone share common ancestry, which has a very significant consequence: sharedgenotype.
One of the most prominent usage is in describing a clone ofB cells. The B cells in the body have two importantphenotypes (functional forms)—the antibody secreting, terminally differentiated (that is, they cannot divide further) plasma cells, and the memory and the naive cells—both of which retain their proliferative potential.
Another important area where one can talk of "clones" of cells isneoplasms.[3] Many of the tumors derive fromone (sufficiently) mutated cell, so they are technically a single clone of cells. However, during course of cell division, one of the cells can get mutated further and acquire new characteristics to diverge as a new clone. However, this view of cancer onset has been challenged in recent years and many tumors have been argued to have polyclonal origin,[4] i.e. derived from two or more cells or clones, including malignant mesothelioma.[5]
Paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria is a disorder of bone marrow cells resulting in shortened life of red blood cells, which is also a result of clonal expansion, i.e., all the altered cells are originally derived from a single cell, which also somewhat compromises the functioning of other "normal" bone marrow cells.[6]
This sectionneeds expansion with: more examples of clonal origin in the human body/vertebrates. You can help byadding to it.(May 2008)
Most other cells cannot divide indefinitely as after a few cycles of cell division the cells stop expressing an enzymetelomerase. The genetic material, in the form ofdeoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), continues to shorten with each cell division, and cells eventually stop dividing when they sense that their DNA is critically shortened. However, this enzyme in "youthful" cells replaces these lost bits (nucleotides) of DNA, thus making almost unlimited cycles of cell division possible. It is believed that the above-mentioned tissues have a constitutional elevated expression of telomerase. When ultimately many cells are produced by a single cell,clonal expansion is said to have taken place.
A somewhat similar concept is that of aclonal colony (also called agenet), wherein the cells (usually unicellular) also share a common ancestry, but which also requires the products of clonal expansion to reside at "one place", or in close proximity. A clonal colony would be well exemplified by abacterial culture colony, or the bacterial films that are more likely to be foundin vivo (e.g., in infected multicellular hosts). Whereas, the cells of clones dealt with here are specialized cells of a multicellular organism (usually vertebrates), and reside at quite distant places. For instance, two plasma cells belonging to the same clone could be derived from different memory cells (in turn with shared clonality) and could be residing in quite distant locations, such as the cervical (in the neck) and inguinal (in the groin)lymph nodes.
The single-celleukaryoteParamecium tetraurelia can undergo both asexual andsexual reproduction. Asexual or clonal reproduction occurs bybinary fission. Binary fission involvesmitosis-like behavior of the chromosomes similar to that of cells in higher organisms. The sexual forms of reproduction areautogamy, a kind of self-fertilization, andconjugation, a kind of sexual interaction between different cells. Clonal asexual reproduction can be initiated after completion of autogamy or conjugation.P. tetraurelia is able to replicate asexually for many generations but the dividing cells gradually age and after about 200 cell divisions, if the cells fail to undergo another autogamy or conjugation, they lose vitality and expire. This process is referred to as clonal aging. Experiments by Smith-Sonneborn,[7] Holmes and Holmes[8] and Gilley and Blackburn[9] showed that accumulation ofDNA damage is the likely cause of clonal aging inP. tetraurelia. This aging process has similarities to the aging process in multicellular eukaryotes (SeeDNA damage theory of aging).
^Bunn, Franklin; Wendell, Rosse (2005).Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. Vol. 1 (16th ed.). The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. p. 616.ISBN0-07-144746-6.
^Smith-Sonneborn, J. (1979). "DNA repair and longevity assurance in Paramecium tetraurelia". Science. 203 (4385): 1115–1117. Bibcode:1979Sci...203.1115S. doi:10.1126/science.424739. PMID 424739
^Holmes, George E.; Holmes, Norreen R. (July 1986). "Accumulation of DNA damages in aging Paramecium tetraurelia". Molecular and General Genetics. 204 (1): 108–114. doi:10.1007/bf00330196. PMID 3091993. S2CID 11992591
^Gilley, David; Blackburn, Elizabeth H. (1994). "Lack of telomere shortening during senescence in Paramecium" (PDF). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 91 (5): 1955–1958. Bibcode:1994PNAS...91.1955G. doi:10.1073/pnas.91.5.1955. PMC 43283. PMID 8127914
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