Definition of Plant Cloning
The ethics of animal cloning have become a controversial issue, but plant cloning has been an important part of agriculture and research for decades. It is achieved through asexual reproduction. Although single-celled organisms routinely make copies of themselves, plants can easily be cloned because of their nature amongst multi-cellular organisms.
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Cloning
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Cloning is the act of producing an exact genetic copy of an individual (although mutations and spontaneous changes within the genome may seep in). Under that definition, asexual reproduction can qualify as cloning, although the term is commonly used to refer to wholesale copying of an organism such as an animal that reproduces genetic variation through sexual means. This can also apply to plants.
Vegetative Reproduction
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Just like animals, plants reproduce sexually. But plants also manufacture new vegetative parts and replace previous ones through constant asexual cellular division. Using this principle, genetically identical but independent individuals can emerge from the vegetative parts of a plant without the need of a spore or seed. This is called vegetative reproduction, and it is similar to cloning a plant.
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Horticulture
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This type of cloning is common in horticulture. According to Food Arts, some identical plants have been propagated for millennia. Wine, for instance, comes from grapes that grow out of rootings or graftings from established vines. Otherwise, grapes mutate too fast to maintain a steady and dependable line to be readily bred from.
Agriculture
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Cloning increases a cultivar's uniformity, and the lack of genetic diversity may make it more susceptible to changes in the environment. However, cloning may increase crop yield and resistance to already-existing diseases and pests. Agriculture has become so dependent upon cloning that many grapes and bananas no longer have any seeds.
Tissue Cultures
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Cloning is also a large part of plant tissue cultures, also known as micro-propagation, which produce plants from small cells or plant parts in a culture sample grown in labs. The tissue sample obtained from a plant is called an explant. These explants need to be placed in specific conditions to grow, including a sterile, nutrient-rich medium.
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References
- Photo Credit grapes image by siloto from Fotolia.com
