Discuss the reasons why cloning transgenic animals may be preferable over traditional breeding. What are some of the
problems with animal cloning?
What will be an ideal response?
ANSWER: Making transgenic mammals is expensive and inefficient. And, because only one copy of the
transgene typically becomes incorporated into the treated cell, not all progeny of a transgenic
animal inherit that gene. Scientists reasoned that an alternative to breeding a valuable
transgenic mammal to produce progeny with the transgene would be to clone the mammal.
Each clone would be identical to the original, including the expression of the transgene.
The cloning of domestic animals has its drawbacks. Many cloning attempts fail, leading to
the death of the transplanted embryos. Cloned animals often suffer from conditions such as
birth defects and poor lung development. Genes may be lost during the cloning process or
may be expressed abnormally in the cloned animal. And, the clone may not be identical
(phenotypically) to the original animal.
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