Plant Cloning Presentation

Daniel Cattle

Thomas McCreanor

Lawrence Mago

What is the Cloning of Plants• The Cloning of Plants is a concept not new

to the modern world. This concept involves part of a donor plant growing into a new plant.

• The part of the donor plant goes into treatment while chemicals, gels, liquids and other growth remedies are placed onto the plant part so it is able to grow

• Since the 20th century scientists and garden experts have realised the benefits which come with plant cloning

• Today Cloned plants and the Cloning of plants is very common mainly for the fact that there is a greater supply of these plants to be used at homes, gardens, the environment and pretty much everywhere around us

Cloned plants can look exactly identical to natural plants

History of Cloning of Plants• The Natural process of the Cloning of plants goes back a long time, around the

beginning of time

• From billions of years ago plants have been making identical copies of themselves through the cloning process

• Nearly all forests, parks and land areas contain billions of cloned plants, trees and agriculture but all these cloned plants are genetically identical to the parent plant.

• People have been cloning plants for thousands of years but it has only been since the 20th century that scientists have realised the benefits they have on society.

• Simple plants and foods have been cloned, for example in 1964 a carrot was cloned by F.C Steward

• Ever since then cloned plants have been cloned for supply, scientific research, money and especially the environment

Asian Carrots

The Plant Cloning Process• As with all growing plants, the cloning process doesn’t

occur overnight like in the movies.• Most human plant cloning is done by either scientists

or professional gardeners• But if you are really interested in cloning plants, you

can clone them yourself but you would need the right equipment and a lot of patience. Many of us don’t really want to do that

• The Steps in the Plant Cloning Process are:1. Small amounts of tissues or cells are taken from a

plant. 2. The cells are then transferred to plates filled with

sterile nutrient agar jelly. 3. Auxins are then added to prepare all the cells for

the process of mitosis. 4. Small masses of tissue grow at a fast rate. 5. Growth hormones are then added to prepare the

long process of root and stem growth. 6. The tiny plantlets are then put into potting trays

where they develop into adult plant. • REFER TO DIAGRAMS

Step by Step Plant Cloning Process

Uses of Plant Cloning in the Modern World

• Plant Cloning has evolved at a fast rate over the past few decades. Scientists and researchers have discovered ways that Plant Cloning can benefit the world and it’s environment. Also the society and it’s citizens have taken plant cloning into consideration and have devised ways on how it can benefit their lives and the way we live. Some of the main uses of plant cloning in the modern world are:

1. Producing more plants for the environment keeping it more safe and healthy, this inturn helping people have healthier lives.

2. Producing more plants for general use (decorations, in houses, garden, pretty much everywhere)

3. Growing a larger food supply for society and this can also benefit countries or areas affected with a low supply of food.

4. Scientific research with genetics and cell structure

Scientific Plant Cloning and manipulation

The Science behind Plant Cloning

• You will need to take a parent plant with all of your desired characteristics and genetics. The plant should be at least 2 months old.

• The next thing you will need is a rooting hormone.• Here is a list of rooting hormones which are good to make a wide range of plant

types:– Dip-N-Grow – Rootone-F – Woods Rooting Compound – Up-Start – Hormodin – Hormex – Superthrive

• New clones are sensitive to light, and need some shade for their first few days, until they begin to form roots.

• Just spray the leaves to keep it away from dehydrating with water via a spray bottle 

• Also needed are a pair of sharp, sterile scissors to cut your clipping and remove excess foliage, a glass of fresh, tepid, water, a pencil or chop stick, and a container (filled with the planting mix of your choice) in which to transfer your new clone. With these materials you are now prepared to make your first clone plant.

Potting Mix

Big nosed sun

Advantages of Plant Cloning• There is a wide range of Advantages to Plant Cloning benefiting all of our lives

nearly everyday. They include:1. Duplication can lead to more plants in the world2. A continuous supply of plants forever (some cloned plants are still alive from hundreds of

years ago3. The cloning procedure (grafting) can make genetically different root and shoot systems to

make a plant more better, stronger, longer lasting and have better qualities than the original4. Plants can be made to not be infected by diseases and viruses 5. The Plant Cloning Process can be made faster6. The Plant Cloning Process is sometimes less expensive than crop growing7. The pollination of plants may not be needed on cloned plants 8. Some seeds are difficult to obtain or germinate so cloning is a preferable alternative. 9. Much more profit to the food industry and the plant industry

Crops can be made entirely from cloned plants

Disadvantages of Plant Cloning• Cloned plants may have plenty of Advantages

but they also have disadvantages which must be solved to make cloned plants the best. These disadvantages include:

1. That it is costly. the cause of this problem is that we don't yet fully understand how to clone plants, therefore when in the act of cloning, many problems and mistakes occur.

2. Tends to eliminate diversity; more exposure to natural phenomenons like disease. If a single disease harms one plant it will likely harm all the crop, because they are all identical. The effects of combination between altered plants and natural ones could be devastating to nature.

3. Cloning crops alters genes therefore disadvantaging crops by:- causing higher mutation rates- lower genetic variation (therefore less chance of survival)- they have equal susceptibility to diseases- can overtake other similar species and lead others to extinction

A cloned plant affected by a virus/ disease

Environmental Impact of Plant Cloning

• The environmental impact of plant cloning can be quite detrimental to natural cloned plants and to the human cloned plants because if the plant cloned has a disease or has a stem cell that is not right it will show up in every other crop and may carry infectious diseases which will kill healthy normal plants.

• Another reason why cloned plants have created an impact on the environment is that once a large supply of cloned plant has been made their genetic makeup is exactly the same and the problem with this is that there would be a diminishing number of unique plants with different characteristics.

• Cloned plants could spread at a rapid rate causing an epidemic (for example the cane toad spread in Queensland), this inturn can harm other plants and maybe even destroy them.

• Not only there are bad impacts on the environment but there are also good ones which include:

1. more supply of plants

2. more agriculture and greener environments in specific areas

3. better plants

Plants infected with a virus / disease

Controversy of Plant Cloning and Overall Cloning

• There is a lot of media attention around cloning especially with the catholic church.

• Cloning is such a new scientific experiment and it has been met with great opposition and biased opinions in government as well in society.

• The true affects of cloning plants like fruits and vegetables are still not fully known and will not be known for many more years until we find the long term affects in eating cloned plants.

• People have been against cloning but many might have not known that some of the fruits and vegetables that they have eaten were cloned like seedless grapes and watermelons.

• Has any one seen the movie Hitman, you need to think about a world with clones running around and assassinating political figures. This should not happen and if it was to happen both parties would use this for the wrong reasons.

• For now stem cell research remains in only a few countries hands, but once the knowledge is out there it becomes very easy to do and becomes more popular and people will stop questioning what is morally right and agree with what science says. 

Natural vs Cloned• Natural Plants• Ever since the beginning of time plants have been reproducing and creating new plants with

different genetic makeups and characteristics. • They have evolved over time and have changed in appearance and quality. They have grown

naturally, have a normal lifespan, experience diseases and sicknesses, all need water and sunlight and most need care from people.

• Cloned Plants• Billions of years ago plants began to clone themselves. A parent plant had a part of it broken

off and grown into a new genetically identical plant. Now nearly 1 out of the 4 plants you see every day is a cloned plant from a tree to a flower.

• When humans create cloned plants it is a whole different thing. Now cloned plants can:1. have longer life spans 2. have better appearances 3. be stronger and able to withstand various things 4. be invulnerable to diseases and viruses 5. have a larger supply

• As you can see cloned plants are a far better benefit to the modern world than natural plants with all their capabilities and advantages. Both have their advantages and disadvantages but as a group we believe that cloned plants are better solution but with some costs.

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