Question

Comment upon the following: (i) Cloning (ii) Transgenic plants.

Hint:

Cloning is about making an identical copy; transgenic plants are about adding a foreign gene.

Answer 1

Step 1: Cloning, what it means.
Cloning is the production of a genetically identical copy of an organism, a cell, or a DNA segment, without the usual sexual reproduction process, so the copy carries the exact same genetic material as the original.

Step 2: Cloning, an example.
Dolly the sheep, produced by transferring the nucleus of an adult mammary cell into an egg cell whose own nucleus had been removed, is the best known example of animal cloning.

Step 3: Transgenic plants, what they are.
A transgenic plant is one into which a foreign gene (from a different species) has been deliberately inserted using genetic engineering techniques, so it now carries and expresses that foreign gene along with its own.

Step 4: Transgenic plants, an example and use.
Bt cotton is a well known transgenic plant, carrying a gene from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis that makes the plant resistant to certain insect pests, cutting the need for chemical pesticides.

Final Answer:
Cloning produces a genetically identical copy of an organism (as with Dolly the sheep); transgenic plants carry a foreign gene inserted by genetic engineering, as in pest resistant Bt cotton.