It has been suggested that this article besplit out into a new article titledCloning in fiction. (Discuss)(February 2025)
Many organisms, includingaspen trees, reproduce by cloning, often creating large groups of organisms with the sameDNA. One example depicted here isquaking aspen.
Cloning is the process of producing individualorganisms with identicalgenomes, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones throughasexual reproduction; this reproduction of an organism by itself without a mate is known asparthenogenesis. In the field ofbiotechnology, cloning is the process of creating cloned organisms ofcells and of DNA fragments.
The artificial cloning of organisms, sometimes known as reproductive cloning, is often accomplished viasomatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), a cloning method in which a viableembryo is created from asomatic cell and anegg cell. In 1996,Dolly the sheep achieved notoriety for being the first mammal cloned from an adult somatic cell.[1] Another example of artificial cloning ismolecular cloning, a technique inmolecular biology in which a single living cell is used to clone a large population of cells that contain identical DNA molecules.
Coined byHerbert J. Webber in 1903, the termclone derives from the Ancient Greek wordκλών (klōn),twig, which is the process whereby a new plant is created from a twig. In botany, the termlusus was used.[2] Inhorticulture, the spellingclon was used until the early twentieth century; the finale came into use to indicate the vowel is a "long o" instead of a "short o".[3][4] Since the term entered the popular lexicon in a more general context, the spellingclone has been used exclusively.
Natural cloning is the production of clones without the involvement of genetic engineering techniques or human intervention (i.e. artificial cloning).[5] Natural cloning occurs through a variety of natural mechanisms, from single-celled organisms to complex multicellular organisms, and has allowed life forms to spread for hundreds of millions of years. Versions of this reproduction method are used by plants, fungi, and bacteria, and is also the way thatclonal colonies reproduce themselves.[6][7] Some of the mechanisms are explored and used in plants and animals are binary fission, budding, fragmentation, and parthenogenesis.[8] It can also occur during some forms of asexual reproduction, when a single parent organism produces genetically identical offspring by itself.[9][10]
It also occurs accidentally in the case of identical twins, which are formed when a fertilized egg splits, creating two or more embryos that carry identical DNA.
Molecular cloning refers to the process of making multiple molecules. Cloning is commonly used to amplifyDNA fragments containing wholegenes, but it can also be used to amplify any DNA sequence such aspromoters, non-coding sequences and randomly fragmented DNA. It is used in a wide array of biological experiments and practical applications ranging fromgenetic fingerprinting to large scale protein production. Occasionally, the term cloning is misleadingly used to refer to the identification of thechromosomal location of a gene associated with a particular phenotype of interest, such as inpositional cloning. In practice, localization of the gene to a chromosome or genomic region does not necessarily enable one to isolate or amplify the relevant genomic sequence. To amplify any DNA sequence in a living organism, that sequence must be linked to anorigin of replication, which is a sequence of DNA capable of directing the propagation of itself and any linked sequence. However, a number of other features are needed, and a variety of specialisedcloning vectors (small piece of DNA into which a foreign DNA fragment can be inserted) exist that allowprotein production,affinity tagging, single-strandedRNA or DNA production and a host of other molecular biology tools.
Cloning of any DNA fragment essentially involves four steps[13]
fragmentation - breaking apart a strand of DNA
ligation – gluing together pieces of DNA in a desired sequence
transfection – inserting the newly formed pieces of DNA into cells
screening/selection – selecting out the cells that were successfully transfected with the new DNA
Although these steps are invariable among cloning procedures a number of alternative routes can be selected; these are summarized as acloning strategy.
Initially, the DNA of interest needs to be isolated to provide a DNA segment of suitable size. Subsequently, a ligation procedure is used where the amplified fragment is inserted into avector (piece of DNA). The vector (which is frequently circular) is linearised usingrestriction enzymes, and incubated with the fragment of interest under appropriate conditions with an enzyme calledDNA ligase. Following ligation, the vector with the insert of interest is transfected into cells. A number of alternative techniques are available, such as chemical sensitisation of cells,electroporation,optical injection andbiolistics. Finally, the transfected cells are cultured. As the aforementioned procedures are of particularly low efficiency, there is a need to identify the cells that have been successfully transfected with the vector construct containing the desired insertion sequence in the required orientation. Modern cloning vectors include selectableantibiotic resistance markers, which allow only cells in which the vector has been transfected, to grow. Additionally, the cloning vectors may contain colour selection markers, which provide blue/white screening (alpha-factor complementation) onX-gal medium. Nevertheless, these selection steps do not absolutely guarantee that the DNA insert is present in the cells obtained. Further investigation of the resulting colonies must be required to confirm that cloning was successful. This may be accomplished by means ofPCR, restriction fragment analysis and/orDNA sequencing.
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 theinoculation 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.
A useful tissue culture technique used to clone distinct lineages of cell lines involves the use of cloning rings (cylinders).[14] In this technique a single-cell suspension of cells that have been exposed to amutagenic agent or drug used to driveselection is plated at high dilution to create isolated colonies, each arising from a single and potentially clonal distinct cell. At an early growth stage when colonies consist of only a few cells, sterilepolystyrene rings (cloning rings), which have been dipped in grease, are placed over an individual colony and a small amount oftrypsin is added. Cloned cells are collected from inside the ring and transferred to a new vessel for further growth.
Somatic-cell nuclear transfer, popularly known as SCNT, can also be used to create embryos for research or therapeutic purposes. The most likely purpose for this is to produce embryos for use instem cell research. This process is also called "research cloning" or "therapeutic cloning". The goal is not to create cloned human beings (called "reproductive cloning"), but rather to harvest stem cells that can be used to study human development and to potentially treat disease. While a clonal human blastocyst has been created, stem cell lines are yet to be isolated from a clonal source.[15]
Therapeutic cloning is achieved by creating embryonic stem cells in the hopes of treating diseases such as diabetes and Alzheimer's. The process begins by removing the nucleus (containing the DNA) from an egg cell and inserting a nucleus from the adult cell to be cloned.[16] In the case of someone with Alzheimer's disease, the nucleus from a skin cell of that patient is placed into an empty egg. The reprogrammed cell begins to develop into an embryo because the egg reacts with the transferred nucleus. The embryo will become genetically identical to the patient.[16] The embryo will then form a blastocyst which has the potential to form/become any cell in the body.[17]
The reason why SCNT is used for cloning is because somatic cells can be easily acquired and cultured in the lab. This process can either add or delete specific genomes of farm animals. A key point to remember is that cloning is achieved when the oocyte maintains its normal functions and instead of using sperm and egg genomes to replicate, the donor's somatic cell nucleus is inserted into the oocyte.[18] The oocyte will react to the somatic cell nucleus, the same way it would to a sperm cell's nucleus.[18]
The process of cloning a particular farm animal using SCNT is relatively the same for all animals. The first step is to collect the somatic cells from the animal that will be cloned. The somatic cells could be used immediately or stored in the laboratory for later use.[18] The hardest part of SCNT is removing maternal DNA from an oocyte at metaphase II. Once this has been done, the somatic nucleus can be inserted into an egg cytoplasm.[18] This creates a one-cell embryo. The grouped somatic cell and egg cytoplasm are then introduced to an electrical current.[18] This energy will hopefully allow the cloned embryo to begin development. The successfully developed embryos are then placed in surrogate recipients, such as a cow or sheep in the case of farm animals.[18]
SCNT is seen as a good method for producing agriculture animals for food consumption. It successfully cloned sheep, cattle, goats, and pigs. Another benefit is SCNT is seen as a solution to clone endangered species that are on the verge of going extinct.[18] However, stresses placed on both the egg cell and the introduced nucleus can be enormous, which led to a high loss in resulting cells in early research. For example,the cloned sheep Dolly was born after 277 eggs were used for SCNT, which created 29 viable embryos. Only three of these embryos survived until birth, and only one survived to adulthood.[19] As the procedure could not be automated, and had to be performed manually under amicroscope, SCNT was very resource intensive. The biochemistry involved in reprogramming thedifferentiated somatic cell nucleus and activating the recipient egg was also far from being well understood. However, by 2014 researchers were reporting cloning success rates of seven to eight out of ten[20] and in 2016, a Korean Company Sooam Biotech was reported to be producing 500 cloned embryos per day.[21]
In SCNT, not all of the donor cell's genetic information is transferred, as the donor cell'smitochondria that contain their ownmitochondrial DNA are left behind. The resulting hybrid cells retain those mitochondrial structures which originally belonged to the egg. As a consequence, clones such as Dolly that are born from SCNT are not perfect copies of the donor of the nucleus.
Organism cloning (also called reproductive 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. Scientists have made some major achievements with cloning, including the asexual reproduction of sheep and cows. There is a lot of ethical debate over whether or not cloning should be used. However, cloning, or asexual propagation,[22] has been common practice in the horticultural world for hundreds of years.
Propagating plants fromcuttings, such as grape vines, is an ancient form of cloning.Bananas can reproduce by cloning (modern cultivars lack seeds)
The termclone is used in horticulture to refer to descendants of a single plant which were produced byvegetative reproduction orapomixis. Many horticultural plantcultivars are clones, having been derived from a single individual, multiplied by some process other than sexual reproduction.[23] As an example, some European cultivars of grapes represent clones that have been propagated for over two millennia. Other examples are potatoes and bananas.[24]
Grafting can be regarded as cloning, since all the shoots and branches coming from the graft are genetically a clone of a single individual, but this particular kind of cloning has not come underethical scrutiny and is generally treated as an entirely different kind of operation.
Many trees,shrubs,vines,ferns and otherherbaceous perennials formclonal colonies naturally. Parts of an individual plant may become detached byfragmentation and grow on to become separate clonal individuals. A common example is in the vegetative reproduction of moss and liverwort gametophyte clones by means ofgemmae. Some vascular plants e.g.dandelion and certainviviparous grasses also formseeds asexually, termedapomixis, resulting in clonal populations of genetically identical individuals.
Clonal derivation exists in nature in some animal species and is referred to asparthenogenesis (reproduction of an organism by itself without a mate). This is an asexual form of reproduction that is only found in females of some insects, crustaceans, nematodes,[25] fish (for example thehammerhead shark[26]),Cape honeybees,[27] and lizards including theKomodo dragon[26] and severalwhiptails. The growth and development occurs without fertilization by a male. In plants, parthenogenesis means the development of an embryo from an unfertilized egg cell, and is a component process of apomixis. In species that use theXY sex-determination system, the offspring will always be female. An example of partenogenesis is the little fire ant (Wasmannia auropunctata), which is native toCentral and South America but has spread throughout many tropical environments.
Reproductive cloning generally 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 from which the nucleus has been removed, or to a cell from ablastocyst from which the nucleus has been removed.[29] 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, themitochondria in thecytoplasm also contains DNA and during SCNT this mitochondrial DNA is wholly from the cytoplasmic donor's egg, thus themitochondrial 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.
Artificialembryo splitting orembryo twinning, a technique that creates monozygotic twins from a single embryo, is not considered in the same fashion as other methods of cloning. During that procedure, a donorembryo is split in two distinct embryos, that can then be transferred viaembryo transfer. It is optimally performed at the 6- to 8-cell stage, where it can be used as an expansion ofIVF to increase the number of available embryos.[30] If both embryos are successful, it gives rise tomonozygotic (identical) twins.
Dolly, aFinn-Dorsetewe, was the first mammal to have been successfully cloned from an adult somatic cell. Dolly was formed by taking a cell from the udder of her 6-year-old biological mother.[31] Contrary to popular belief, she was not the first animal to be cloned.[32] Dolly's embryo was created by taking the cell and inserting it into a sheep ovum. It took 435 attempts before an embryo was successful.[33] The embryo was then placed inside a female sheep that went through a normal pregnancy.[34] She was cloned at theRoslin Institute in Scotland by British scientists SirIan Wilmut andKeith Campbell and lived there from her birth in 1996 until her death in 2003 when she was six. She was born on 5 July 1996 but not announced to the world until 22 February 1997.[35] Herstuffed remains were placed at Edinburgh'sRoyal Museum, part of theNational Museums of Scotland.[36]
Dolly was publicly significant because the effort showed that genetic material from a specific adult cell, designed to express only a distinct subset of its genes, can be redesigned to grow an entirely new organism. Before this demonstration, it had been shown by John Gurdon that nuclei from differentiated cells could give rise to an entire organism after transplantation into an enucleated egg.[37] However, this concept was not yet demonstrated in a mammalian system.
The first mammalian cloning (resulting in Dolly) had a success rate of 29 embryos per 277 fertilized eggs, which produced three lambs at birth, one of which lived. In a bovine experiment involving 70 cloned calves, one-third of the calves died quite young. The first successfully cloned horse,Prometea, took 814 attempts. Notably, although the first clones were frogs, no adult cloned frog has yet been produced from a somatic adult nucleus donor cell.[38]
There were early claims that Dolly had pathologies resembling accelerated aging. Scientists speculated that Dolly's death in 2003 was related to the shortening oftelomeres, DNA-protein complexes that protect the end of linearchromosomes. However, other researchers, includingIan Wilmut who led the team that successfully cloned Dolly, argue that Dolly's early death due to respiratory infection was unrelated to problems with the cloning process. This idea that the nuclei have not irreversibly aged was shown in 2013 to be true for mice.[39]
Dolly was named after performerDolly Parton because the cells cloned to make her were from amammary gland cell, and Parton is known for her ample cleavage.[40]
In 2024,Colossal Biosciences announced they had brought thedire wolf back from extinction via cloning and genetic engineering. The biotech company created three grey wolf clones with 14 genes edited to express traits likely similar to those of dire wolves.[41][42] Many scientists have contested whether the clones can be considered true dire wolves.[43][44][45]
In 2023, Chinese scientists reported the cloning of threesupercows with a milk productivity "nearly 1.7 times the amount of milk an average cow in the United States produced in 2021" and a plan for 1,000 of such super cows in the near-term. According to a news report "[i]n many countries, including the United States, farmers breed clones with conventional animals to add desirable traits, such as high milk production or disease resistance, into the gene pool".[clarification needed][when?][61]
Cat:CopyCat "CC" (female, late 2001),Little Nicky, 2004, was the first cat cloned for commercial reasons[62]
Kurt, the first cloned Przewalski's horse, was born in 2020. He was cloned from the skin tissue of a stallion which was preserved in 1980.[67]
"Trey" was born in 2023. He was cloned from the same stallion's tissue as Kurt.[68]
Dog:
Snuppy, a maleAfghan hound was the first cloned dog (2005).[69] In 2017, the world's first gene-editing clone dog, Apple, was created bySinogene Biotechnology.[70] Sooam Biotech, South Korea, was reported in 2015 to have cloned 700 dogs to date for their owners, including twoYakutian Laika hunting dogs, which are seriously endangered due to crossbreeding.[71]
Cloning of supersniffer dogs was reported in 2011, four years afterwards when the dogsstarted working.[72] Cloning of a successful rescue dog was also reported in 2009[73] and of a similar police dog in 2019.[74] Cancer-sniffing dogs have also been cloned. Areview concluded that "qualifiedelite working dogs can be produced by cloning a working dog that exhibits both an appropriate temperament and good health."[75]
Water buffalo:Samrupa was the first cloned water buffalo. It was born on 6 February 2009, atIndia's Karnal National Dairy Research Institute but died five days later due to lung infection.[77]
Pyrenean ibex: (2009) was the first extinct animal to be cloned back to life; the clone lived for seven minutes before dying of lung defects.[78] The extinct Pyrenean ibex is a sub-species of the extantSpanish ibex.[79]
Camel: (2009)Injaz, was the first cloned camel.[80]
Goat: (2001) Scientists ofNorthwest A&F University successfully cloned the first goat which use the adult female cell.[82]
Gastric brooding frog: (2013) The gastric brooding frog,Rheobatrachus silus, thought to have been extinct since 1983 was cloned in Australia, although the embryos died after a few days.[83]
Macaque monkey: (2017) First successful cloning of aprimate species usingnuclear transfer, with the birth of two live clones namedZhong Zhong and Hua Hua. Conducted in China in 2017, and reported in January 2018.[84][85][86][87] In January 2019, scientists in China reported the creation of five identicalclonedgene-edited monkeys, using the same cloning technique that was used with Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua andDolly the sheep, and the gene-editingCrispr-Cas9 technique allegedly used byHe Jiankui in creating the first ever gene-modified human babiesLulu and Nana. The monkey clones were made to study several medical diseases.[88][89]
Black-footed ferret: (2020) A team of scientists cloned a female named Willa, who died in the mid-1980s and left no living descendants. Her clone, a female named Elizabeth Ann, was born on 10 December. Scientists hope that the contribution of this individual will alleviate the effects of inbreeding and help black-footed ferrets better cope with plague. Experts estimate that this female's genome contains three times as much genetic diversity as any of the modern black-footed ferrets.[90]
Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. The term is generally used to refer to artificial human cloning, which is the reproduction of human cells and tissues. It does not refer to the natural conception and delivery ofidenticaltwins. The possibility of human cloning has raisedcontroversies. These ethical concerns have prompted several nations to pass legislation regarding human cloning and its legality. As of right now, scientists have no intention of trying to clone people and they believe their results should spark a wider discussion about the laws and regulations the world needs to regulate cloning.[92]
Two commonly discussed types of theoretical human cloning aretherapeutic cloning andreproductive cloning. Therapeutic cloning would involve cloning cells from a human for use in medicine and transplants, and is an active area of research, but is not in medical practice anywhere in the world, as of 2024[update]. Two common methods of therapeutic cloning that are being researched aresomatic-cell nuclear transfer and, more recently,pluripotent stem cell induction. Reproductive cloning would involve making an entire cloned human, instead of just specific cells or tissues.[93]
There are a variety ofethical positions regarding the possibilities of cloning, especiallyhuman cloning. While many of these views are religious in origin, the questions raised by cloning are faced by secular perspectives as well. Perspectives on human cloning are theoretical, as human therapeutic and reproductive cloning are not commercially used; animals are currently cloned in laboratories and inlivestock production.
Advocates support development of therapeutic cloning to generate tissues and whole organs to treat patients who otherwise cannot obtain transplants,[94] to avoid the need forimmunosuppressive drugs,[93] and to stave off the effects of aging.[95] Advocates for reproductive cloning believe that parents who cannot otherwise procreate should have access to the technology.[96]
Opponents of cloning have concerns that technology is not yet developed enough to be safe[97] and that it could be prone to abuse (leading to the generation of humans from whom organs and tissues would be harvested),[98][99] as well as concerns about how cloned individuals could integrate with families and with society at large.[100][101] Cloning humans could lead to serious violations ofhuman rights.[102]
Religious groups are divided, with some opposing the technology as usurping "God's place" and, to the extent embryos are used, destroying a human life; others support therapeutic cloning's potential life-saving benefits.[103][104] There is at least one religion,Raëlism, in which cloning plays a major role.[105][106][107]
Contemporary work on this topic is concerned with the ethics, adequate regulation and issues of any cloning carried out by humans,not potentially by extraterrestrials (including in the future), and largely also not replication – also described as mind cloning[108][109][110][111] – of potential whole brain emulations.
Cloning of animals is opposed by animal-groups due to the number of cloned animals that suffer from malformations before they die, and while food from cloned animals has been approved as safe by the US FDA,[112][113] its use is opposed by groups concerned about food safety.[114][115]
In practical terms, the inclusion of "licensing requirements for embryo research projects and fertility clinics, restrictions on the commodification of eggs and sperm, and measures to prevent proprietary interests from monopolizing access to stem cell lines" in international cloning regulations has been proposed, albeit e.g. effective oversight mechanisms or cloning requirements have not been described.[116]
Cloning, or more precisely, the reconstruction of functional DNA fromextinct species has, for decades, been a dream. Possible implications of this were dramatized in the 1984 novelCarnosaur and the 1990 novelJurassic Park.[117][118] The best current cloning techniques have an average success rate of 9.4 percent[119] (and as high as 25 percent[39]) when working with familiar species such as mice,[note 1] while cloning wild animals is usually less than 1 percent successful.[122]
Engineers have proposed a "lunar ark" in 2021 – storing millions of seed, spore, sperm and egg samples from Earth's contemporary species in a network of lava tubes on theMoon as a genetic backup.[128][129][130] Similar proposals have been made since at least 2008.[131] These also include sending human customer DNA,[132] and a proposal for "a lunar backup record of humanity" that includes genetic information byAvi Loeb et al.[133]
In 2020, theSan Diego Zoo began a number of projects in partnership with the conservation organizationRevive & Restore and theViaGen Pets and Equine Company to clone individuals of genetically-impoverished endangered species. APrzewalski's horse was cloned from preserved tissue of a stallion whose genes are absent in the surviving populations of the species, which descend from twenty individuals. The clone, named Kurt, had been born to a domestic surrogate mother, and was partnered with a natural-born Przewalski's mare in order to socialize him with the species' natural behavior before being introduced to the Zoo's breeding herd.[134] In 2023, a second clone of the original stallion, named Ollie, was born; this marked the first instance of multiple living clones of a single individual of an endangered species being alive at the same time.[135] Also in 2020, a clone named Elizabeth Ann was produced of a femaleblack-footed ferret that had no living descendants.[136] While Elizabeth Ann became sterile due to secondary health complications, a pair of additional clones of the same individual, named Antonia and Noreen, were born to distinct surrogate mothers, and Antonia successfully reproduced later in the year.[137]
One of the most anticipated targets for cloning was once thewoolly mammoth, but attempts to extract DNA from frozen mammoths have been unsuccessful, though a joint Russo-Japanese team is currently working toward this goal.[when?] In January 2011, it was reported by Yomiuri Shimbun that a team of scientists headed by Akira Iritani of Kyoto University had built upon research by Dr. Wakayama, saying that they will extract DNA from a mammoth carcass that had been preserved in a Russian laboratory and insert it into the egg cells of anAsian elephant in hopes of producing a mammoth embryo. The researchers said they hoped to produce a baby mammoth within six years.[138][139] The challenges are formidable. Extensively degraded DNA that may be suitable for sequencing may not be suitable for cloning; it would have to be synthetically reconstituted. In any case, with currently available technology, DNA alone is not suitable for mammalian cloning; intact viable cell nuclei are required. Patching pieces of reconstituted mammoth DNA into an Asian elephant cell nucleus would result in an elephant-mammoth hybrid rather than a true mammoth.[140] Moreover, true de-extinction of the wooly mammoth species would require a breeding population, which would require cloning of multiple genetically distinct but reproductively compatible individuals, multiplying both the amount of work and the uncertainties involved in the project. There are potentially other post-cloning problems associated with the survival of a reconstructed mammoth, such as the requirement ofruminants for specificsymbioticmicrobiota in their stomachs for digestion.[140]
Many such "de-extinction" projects are being championed by the non-profitRevive & Restore.[142]
In 2022, scientists showed major limitations and the scale of challenge of genetic-editing-based de-extinction, suggesting resources spent on more comprehensive de-extinction projects such asof the woolly mammoth may currently not be wellallocated and substantially limited. Their analyses "show that even when the extremely high-quality Norway brown rat (R. norvegicus) is used as a reference, nearly 5% of the genome sequence is unrecoverable, with 1,661 genes recovered at lower than 90% completeness, and 26 completely absent", complicated further by that "distribution of regions affected is not random, but for example, if 90% completeness is used as the cutoff, genes related to immune response and olfaction are excessively affected" due to which "a reconstructed Christmas Island rat would lack attributes likely critical to surviving in its natural or natural-like environment".[143]
In a 2021 online session of the Russian Geographical Society, Russia's defense ministerSergei Shoigu mentioned using the DNA of 3,000-year-oldScythian warriors to potentially bring them back to life. The idea was described as absurd at least at this point in news reports and it was noted that Scythians likely weren't skilled warriors by default.[144][145][146]
The idea of cloningNeanderthals or bringing them back to life in general is controversial but some scientists have stated that it may be possible in the future and have outlined several issues or problems with such as well as broad rationales for doing so.[147][148][149][150][151][152]
In 2001, a cow named Bessie gave birth to a cloned Asiangaur, an endangered species, but the calf died after two days. In 2003, abanteng was successfully cloned, followed by threeAfrican wildcats from a thawed frozen embryo. These successes provided hope that similar techniques (using surrogate mothers of another species) might be used to clone extinct species. Anticipating this possibility, tissue samples from the lastbucardo (Pyrenean ibex) were frozen inliquid nitrogen immediately after it died in 2000. Researchers are also considering cloning endangered species such as theGiant panda andCheetah.[153][154][155][156]
In 2002, geneticists at theAustralian Museum announced that they had replicated DNA of thethylacine (Tasmanian tiger), at the time extinct for about 65 years, usingpolymerase chain reaction.[157] However, on 15 February 2005 the museum announced that it was stopping the project after tests showed the specimens' DNA had been too badly degraded by the (ethanol) preservative. On 15 May 2005 it was announced that the thylacine project would be revived, with new participation from researchers inNew South Wales andVictoria.[158] In 2022Colossal Biosciences andUniversity of Melbourne announced further efforts to de-extinct the Thylacine, creating the Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research (TIGRR) Lab, which claims it has made a series of significant advancements, including having produced a thylacine genome that is "more than 99.9-per-cent accurate".[159][160]
In 2003, for the first time, an extinct animal, the Pyrenean ibex mentioned above was cloned, at the Centre of Food Technology and Research of Aragon, using the preserved frozen cell nucleus of the skin samples from 2001 and domestic goat egg-cells. The ibex died shortly after birth due to physical defects in its lungs.[161]
After an eight-year project involving the use of a pioneering cloning technique, Japanese researchers created 25 generations of healthy cloned mice with normal lifespans, demonstrating that clones are not intrinsically shorter-lived than naturally born animals.[39][162] Other sources have noted that the offspring of clones tend to be healthier than the original clones and indistinguishable from animals produced naturally.[163]
Some posited that Dolly the sheep may have aged more quickly than naturally born animals, as she died relatively early for a sheep at the age of six. Ultimately, her death was attributed to a respiratory illness, and the "advanced aging" theory is disputed.[164][dubious –discuss]
A 2016 study indicated that once cloned animals survive the first month or two of life they are generally healthy.[165] However, early pregnancy loss and neonatal losses are still greater with cloning than natural conception or assisted reproduction (IVF). Current research is attempting to overcome these problems.[40]
Discussion of cloning in the popular media often presents the subject negatively. In an article in the 8 November 1993 article ofTime, cloning was portrayed in a negative way, modifying Michelangelo'sCreation of Adam to depict Adam with five identical hands.[166]Newsweek's 10 March 1997 issue also critiqued the ethics of human cloning, and included a graphic depicting identical babies in beakers.[167]
The concept of cloning, particularly human cloning, has featured a wide variety of science fiction works. An early fictional depiction of cloning isBokanovsky's Process which features inAldous Huxley's 1931 dystopian novelBrave New World. The process is applied to fertilized humaneggsin vitro, causing them to split into identical genetic copies of the original.[168][169] Following renewed interest in cloning in the 1950s, the subject was explored further in works such asPoul Anderson's 1953 storyUN-Man, which describes a technology called "exogenesis", andGordon Rattray Taylor's bookThe Biological Time Bomb, which popularised the term "cloning" in 1963.[170]
The process of cloning is represented variously in fiction. Many works depict the artificial creation of humans by a method of growing cells from a tissue or DNA sample; the replication may be instantaneous, or take place through slow growth of human embryos inartificial wombs. In the long-running British television seriesDoctor Who, theFourth Doctor and his companionLeela were cloned in a matter of seconds from DNA samples ("The Invisible Enemy", 1977) and then – in an apparenthomage to the 1966 filmFantastic Voyage – shrunk to microscopic size to enter the Doctor's body to combat an alien virus. The clones in this story are short-lived, and can only survive a matter of minutes before they expire.[172] Science fiction films such asThe Matrix andStar Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones have featured scenes of humanfoetuses being cultured on an industrial scale in mechanical tanks.[173]
Cloning humans from body parts is also a common theme in science fiction. Cloning features strongly among the science fiction conventions parodied in Woody Allen'sSleeper, the plot of which centres around an attempt to clone an assassinated dictator from his disembodied nose.[174] In the 2008Doctor Who story "Journey's End", a duplicate version of theTenth Doctor spontaneously grows from his severed hand, which had been cut off in a sword fight during an earlier episode.[175]
After the death of her beloved 14-year-oldCoton de Tulear named Samantha in late 2017,Barbra Streisand announced that she had cloned the dog, and was now "waiting for [the two cloned pups] to get older so [she] can see if they have [Samantha's] brown eyes and her seriousness".[176] The operation cost $50,000 through the pet cloning companyViaGen.[177]
In films such asRoger Spottiswoode's 2000The 6th Day, which makes use of the trope of a "vast clandestine laboratory ... filled with row upon row of 'blank' human bodies kept floating in tanks of nutrient liquid or in suspended animation", clearly fear is to be incited. In Clark's view, the biotechnology is typically "given fantastic but visually arresting forms" while the science is either relegated to the background or fictionalised to suit a young audience.[178] Genetic engineering methods are weakly represented in film; Michael Clark, writing forThe Wellcome Trust, calls the portrayal of genetic engineering and biotechnology "seriously distorted"[178]
In November 2025, former American football quarterbackTom Brady received a lot of criticism when he announced that his dog Junie is a clone of his late dog Lua.[179]
Science fiction has used cloning, most commonly and specificallyhuman cloning, to address questions of identity andeugenics.[180][181]A Number is a 2002 play by English playwrightCaryl Churchill which addresses the subject of human cloning and identity, especiallynature and nurture. The story, set in the near future, is structured around the conflict between a father (Salter) and his sons (Bernard 1, Bernard 2, and Michael Black) –the second two of whom are clones of the first.A Number was adapted by Caryl Churchill for television, in a co-production between theBBC andHBO Films.[182]
In 2012, a Japanese television series named "Bunshin" was created. The story's main character, Mariko, is a woman studying child welfare in Hokkaido. She grew up always doubtful about the love from her mother, who looked nothing like her and who died nine years before. One day, she finds some of her mother's belongings at a relative's house, and heads to Tokyo to seek out the truth behind her birth. She later discovered that she was a clone.[183]
In the 2013 television seriesOrphan Black, cloning is used as a scientific study on the behavioral adaptation of the clones.[184] In a similar vein, the bookThe Double by Nobel Prize winnerJosé Saramago explores the emotional experience of a man who discovers that he is a clone.[185]
TheNorman Spinrad's satiricalThe Iron Dream, published in 1972, concludes with 300 seven-foot-tall, blond, super-intelligent all-male SS clones in suspended animation launched into space to begin the Hitler analog'sgalactic empire in the aftermath of a genocidalrace war. (They had won aPyrrhic victory, the subhumans' leader having as his last act detonated adoomsday weapon, specifically acobalt bomb, irredeemably contaminated thegene pool).[187]
InMichael Crichton's 1990 novelJurassic Park, which spawned aseries ofJurassic Park feature films, the bioengineering company InGen develops a technique to resurrect extinct species of dinosaurs by creating cloned creatures using DNA extracted fromfossils. The cloned dinosaurs are used to populate the Jurassic Parkwildlife park for the entertainment of visitors. The scheme goes disastrously wrong when the dinosaurs escape their enclosures.[188]
The use of cloning for military purposes has also been explored in several fictional works. InDoctor Who, an alien race of armour-clad, warlike beings calledSontarans was introduced in the 1973 serial "The Time Warrior". Sontarans are depicted as squat, bald creatures who have been genetically engineered for combat. Their weak spot is a "probic vent", a small socket at the back of their neck which is associated with the cloning process.[189] The concept of cloned soldiers being bred for combat was revisited in "The Doctor's Daughter" (2008), when the Doctor's DNA is used to create a female warrior calledJenny.[190]
The 1977 filmStar Wars was set against the backdrop of a historical conflict called theClone Wars. The events of this war were not fully explored until the prequel filmsAttack of the Clones (2002) andRevenge of the Sith (2005), which depict aspace war waged by a massive army of heavily armouredclone troopers that leads to the foundation of theGalactic Empire. Cloned soldiers are "manufactured" on an industrial scale, genetically conditioned for obedience and combat effectiveness. It is also revealed that the popular characterBoba Fett originated as a clone ofJango Fett, a mercenary who served as the genetic template for the clone troopers.[191][192]
A recurring sub-theme of cloning fiction is the use of clones as a supply oforgans fortransplantation. The 2005Kazuo Ishiguro novelNever Let Me Go and the2010 film adaption[193] are set in analternate history in which cloned humans are created for the sole purpose of providing organ donations to naturally born humans, despite the fact that they are fully sentient and self-aware. The 2005 filmThe Island[194] revolves around a similar plot, with the exception that the clones are unaware of the reason for their existence.
The exploitation of human clones for dangerous and undesirable work was examined in the 2009 British science fiction filmMoon.[195] In the futuristic novelCloud Atlas and subsequentfilm, one of the story lines focuses on a genetically engineered fabricant clone named Sonmi~451, one of millions raised in an artificial "wombtank", destined to serve from birth. She is one of thousands created for manual andemotional labor; Sonmi herself works as a server in a restaurant. She later discovers that the sole source of food for clones, called 'Soap', is manufactured from the clones themselves.[196]
In the filmUs, at some point prior to the 1980s, the US Government creates clones of every citizen of the United States with the intention of using them to control their original counterparts, akin tovoodoo dolls. This fails, as they were able to copy bodies, but unable to copy the souls of those they cloned. The project is abandoned and the clones are trapped exactly mirroring their above-ground counterparts' actions for generations. In the present day, the clones launch a surprise attack and manage to complete a mass-genocide of their unaware counterparts.[197][198]
^One news article in 2014 reported success rates of 70-80 percent for cloning pigs byBGI, a Chinese company[120] and in another news article in 2015 a Korean Company, Sooam Biotech, claimed 40 percent success rates with cloning dogs[121]
^Swedin, Eric."Cloning".CredoReference. Science in the Contemporary World. Retrieved23 September 2013.
^TV documentary Visions of the Future part 2 shows this process, explores the social implicatins of cloning and contains footage of monoculture in livestock
^de Grey, Aubrey; Rae, Michael (September 2007).Ending Aging: The Rejuvenation Breakthroughs that Could Reverse Human Aging in Our Lifetime. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 416 pp.ISBN0-312-36706-6.
^Hanson, Robin (2016).The age of em: work, love, and life when robots rule the Earth (First ed.). Oxford.ISBN978-0-19-875462-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Watanabe, S (September 2013). "Effect of calf death loss on cloned cattle herd derived from somatic cell nuclear transfer: clones with congenital defects would be removed by the death loss".Animal Science Journal.84 (9):631–8.doi:10.1111/asj.12087.PMID23829575.
^McDonald, Paul F. (2013)."The Clones".The Star Wars Heresies: Interpreting the Themes, Symbols and Philosophies of Episodes I, II and III. McFarland. pp. 167–171.ISBN978-0-7864-7181-2. Retrieved4 November 2017.
Guo, Owen. "World's Biggest Animal Cloning Center Set for '16 in a Skeptical China".The New York Times, 26 November 2015
Lerner, K. Lee. "Animal cloning".TheGale Encyclopedia of Science, edited by K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, 5th ed., Gale, 2014. Science in Context,link[permanent dead link]
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