BRAINCAKENatural Clones in Plants
A clone is an organism (or cell) that is genetically identical to its parent or to other clones. Clones are produced by asexual reproduction, using only mitosis, so there is no meiosis, no fusion of gametes and no new combination of alleles. Any differences between clones come from mutations or the environment.
Many plants clone themselves naturally. This is possible because plants keep regions of unspecialised, dividing cells called meristems throughout their lives, for example in the tips of shoots and roots and in the cambium. Meristem cells are totipotent or close to it, so they can divide and differentiate into all the tissues needed to form a whole new plant.
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More in Cloning and Biotechnology
- Vegetative Propagation
- Artificial Clones - Cuttings
- Tissue Culture and Micropropagation
- Pros and Cons of Plant Cloning
- Natural Clones in Animals
- Artificial Twinning
- Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer
- Pros and Cons of Animal Cloning
All 21 lessons in Cloning and Biotechnology · All OCR A-level Biology topics