Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2021 October 9

= October 9 =

Cloning
This is a question that has bugged me for a while now. Is cloning a type of asexual reproduction?

Cheers, 2600:387:A:3:0:0:0:45 (talk) 21:00, 9 October 2021 (UTC)


 * The natural kind of cloning? Absolutely. See Cloning. Imagine Reason (talk) 02:26, 10 October 2021 (UTC)


 * Many definitions are not foolproof in unintended applications. If a time traveller jumps forward in time and kills their older self, is that murder or suicide? If you remove the front wheel of your bicycle, is it no longer a bicycle but a monocycle? If you pay a debt to a fellow gambler with casino tokens, is that a cash payment? Artificial cloning uses the technique of somatic cell nuclear transfer: the nucleus of an oocyte, produced by some (female) individual R, is replaced by that of a somatic cell taken from an individual D. The now modified oocyte is made to develop into a new individual C. Some exceptional situations aside, the genome of C is identical to that of D. If the donation of one's genome to one's offspring is used as the definition of asexual reproduction, then the answer is yes. Or perhaps not. The genes that C inherits from D are only the nuclear DNA, not the full genome. The mitochondrial DNA of C comes from R. A genealogical DNA test will reveal R as the mother of C. The concept of asexual reproduction arose to classify types of natural reproduction and was never meant to be applied to artificial cloning. --Lambiam 10:01, 10 October 2021 (UTC)