How to Clone

Cloning, duplication, Asexual reproduction… it’s all the same. To clone is to make something with the exact same genetic information as their mother source. Asexual (not sexual) reproduction is the reproduction of a cell from one source of DNA.

You come from two sources of DNA, your mother and your father, which brought two homologous cells (half the needed chromosomes) together and formed a zygote. This zygote (the one human cell which is the begging of the baby, which contains a diploid chromosomes (all the DNA you need) which duplicated and developed until it became you! So no, you are not a clone.

Meiosis + Mitosis

Meiosis and mitosis are both a part of the cell cycle, they are the part where the cell multiplies. Each type of cell will either use meiosis or mitosis.  In the cell cycle, the cell is just growing most of the time, this growing phase is called interphase (inter as in “in between”) meaning between mitosis/meiosis. The little rest of the cycle consists of the phases of reproduction.

– it is important to remember that the chromosomes (DNA strings) are duplicated in

Mitosis

Mitosis is asexual cell division, more commonly thought of as the simple cell division, so we’ll start there. There are four distinct identifying sections, they are… Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, Telophase. Look below to see what happens in each phase.

Meiosis

Meiosis Seems at first glance, the same cycle but it is very very different as well. Mitosis involves pairing similar chromosomes (but not exactly the same) which allows some of the parts of the chromosomes to switch up and vary the DNA of the descendent cell. Mitosis is much more complicated, but seems simple once you learn it and it is important so I sincerely recommend the KahnAcademy course about cell division. And it’s free! (Not a sponsor).

Taking Over the World via Dandelion

Everyone who lives in bc (and I’m guessing A LOT of other places) knows how powerful the wrath of the dandelion is. When it digs in its roots, it does not want to let go. It will take over and control your garden just because it can. So we thought it would be a great idea if we learned to clone them, maybe sabotage a few gardens, possibly make all of world a dandelion farm where everyone just has to eat dandelion leaf salad. Can we succeed at cloning them?

We dug up dandelions, gut their roots in thirds, and planted them. Most thirds grew into a beautiful plant. However the question still stands, did we actually clone them? Yes we did because each piece of root just came from it’s singular parent plant, there was no sexual reproduction involved.

We then made our new growing roots into slides and looked at them under microscopes to learn how mitosis (asexual reproduction) works, and to find out if we can identify each stage of mitosis.

Dahlia Time

Ok, well now that we’ve cloned a weed we decided to clone something a little more useful, that might take a little longer to grow. Me and my partner Amelia.B decided to clone a dahlia. Dahlias are these beautiful, and diverce flowers which come in three main graoups. The spiky ones, the pedal ones, and the ball ones… you’ll see what I mean.

Making Slides

Making microscope slides is a really fun process involving scalpels, dissection trays, acid, poisonous dye, and time. Don’t forget your gloves!

First you cut one cell layer thin piece of your plant (or other specimen), place it on a microscopic slide, and cover it in acid. The acid kills the cells right in the middle of whatever they’re doing. Rinse it off and put acid on it a few times repeating before moving on to the poisons dye (which will make sure it’s really dead, and then dye the tissue to better see it under the microscope. Then seal a lid on it (over simplified), and squish it gently to make sure it’s really just one cell layer thick.

It’s actually really fun, you should try it some time in science class!

Check out my keynote for better instructions.

Results

Turns out that the dahlias we cloned did grow maybe two small roots which we made slides from, but as it turns out after a few goes at it that dahlia cells are too small to see much of any mitosis in (with the school microscopes). So we ended up using caleb’s Garlic plant’s roots for our slide, and they were much easier to see. In the document below, you can see all the stages of mitosis from our slides (from caleb’s plant).

Conclusion

Cloning is both, fun and useful. You can clone basically any type of plant.

I have been clinging Acers (aka Japanese Maples) at home since the end of this project. And I have managed to grow the beginnings of one Japanese maple bonsai tree! – thanks cloning!