Answer this biology question 2) Ian Wilmut, the scientist who cloned Dolly, as w

Question

Answer this biology question

2) Ian Wilmut, the scientist who cloned Dolly, as well as many other scientists believe that it may be possible to clone a mammoth with cells from a well preserved frozen (for about 10,000 yrs!) woolly mammoth. (An elephant might be the surrogate mother.)

a) What are some of the ethical questions raised by the cloning of an extinct mammoth?

b) Briefly describe the steps involved if the same technique that was used to clone dolly was used to clone the Mammoth.

c)Instead of using the technique that was used to clone Dolly, it may be easier to use induced pluripotent stem cells,iPS. What are iPS? What are some other possible future uses of pluripotent cells?

Explanation / Answer

a) What are some of the ethical questions raised by the cloning of an extinct mammoth?

Mammoths cloning: there are various ethical concerns in constructing chimeric DNA of extinct mammoth with new DNA of modern elephant. A modern copy is extremely cause imbalance in nature because it is possible to these species to destruct modern habitat. It is not possible to create an ancient habitat for them as result imbalance in natural food web. Other species may be affected due to lack adequate habitat because extinct mammoth separately need a specific habitat to survive. It is not possible to provide the suitable habitat to them in this present environment. Mixing of DNA with new elephant DNA is chimeric may deliver abnormal species which destroys human habitat also, if protocols going to wrong

b) Briefly describe the steps involved if the same technique that was used to clone dolly was used to clone the Mammoth.

The steps involved if the same technique that was used to clone dolly was used to clone the Mammoth:

DNA cloning technology-chimeric DNA:

Selection of host DNA (the surrogate mother): Initially a host DNA of modern elephant (Dolly) is isolated for genetic analysis followed by examining the healthy host cells finally nuclear DNA of egg cells of modern elephant is removed

Isolating and processing of preserved viable mammoth DNA: synthesizing viable DNA and injecting it into the modern host elephant egg cell using electrophoration result in formation of hen chimeric genome of hybrid DNA using “DNA ligases” to ligate

c)Instead of using the technique that was used to clone Dolly, it may be easier to use induced pluripotent stem cells,iPS. What are iPS? What are some other possible future uses of pluripotent cells?

These embryonic stem cells can differentiate into various cell types and they can differentiate into ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm during embryonic development therefore these referred as pluripotent. These are not exhibiting multipotency property as these cells can differentiate into various types but cannot differentiate into multiple cells. For example, a multipotent progenitor stem cell to produce blood cells differentiates into various types of cells but cannot differentiate into brain cell.

i). Totipotent stem cell: Each cell can develop into a complete new individual (e.g. Cells from early (1-3 days) embryos) (T- cells).

ii). pluripotent stem cell: Cells can form any (over 200) cell types (Some cells of blastocyst (5 to 14 days).

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs): These cells produced from adult cells, which reprogrammed to produce an embryonic stem cell through genetic reprogramming. There are total 4 potential factors responsible to transcribe and to induce these pluripotent stem cells. The following are Yamanaka factors, which have ability to induce pluripotent stage to fibroblast. 1. Oct 3/4, 2. Sox2; 3. C-myc; 4. Klf4.

Reprogramming the adult somatic cells to become like embryonic stem cells (induced pluripotent stem cells, iPSCs) through the introduction of embryonic genes is a new advance in stem cell research. Thus, a source of cells can be generated that are specific to the donor, thereby increasing the chance of compatibility, if such cells were to be used for tissue regeneration.

However, as in the case of embryonic stem cells, the control of differentiation process to specific cell lines is still under investigation.

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