Clone Health Dictionary

An exact copy.

In medicine, the term usually refers to copies of cells, genes, or organisms.

Clones of cells are all descended from one original cell.

In many types of cancer, cells are thought to be derived from one abnormal cell.

Clones of genes are duplicates of a single gene.

In research, several copies of a gene can be made to enable the gene to be studied in detail.

Clones of organisms are produced by removing the nuclei from cells of a donor individual and transplanting them into the egg cells of another individual.

When the eggs mature into living plants or animals, they are all identical to the donor.

A group of cells genetically identical to each other that have arisen from one cell by asexual reproduction (see CLONING).

1. n. a group of cells (usually bacteria) descended from a single cell by asexual reproduction and therefore genetically identical to each other and to the parent cell. 2. n. an organism derived from a single cell of its parent and therefore genetically identical to it. The first cloned animal, born in 1997, was produced by fusing a somatic nucleus of the parent with a denucleated egg cell of a second animal. The resulting ‘embryo’ was implanted into the uterus of a third animal to complete its development. 3. n. (gene clone) a group of identical genes produced by *genetic engineering. The parent gene is isolated using *restriction enzymes and inserted, via a cloning vector (e.g. a bacteriophage), into a bacterium, in which it is replicated. See also vector. 4. vb. to form a clone. See also cloning.