Cloning – the Pros and Cons and the stage in India

When Dolly, the first cloned sheep became news, cloning interested the masses. Not only did

researchers delve deeper into the subject but even the common people sought great interest in

knowing all about how cloning had been done. There was a sudden curiosity that rose in society about

how cloning could benefit the common man. People were eager to know all about cloning and

questions prevail till date.  Ever since cloning became a possibility, its pros and cons have been

fervently debated over on moral, ethical and technical grounds.

Cloning in biology is the process of similar producing populations of genetically identical individuals

that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning

in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments (molecular cloning), cells

(cell cloning), or organisms. The term also refers to the production of multiple copies of a product such

as digital media or software. The term clone is derived from the Greek word for “trunk, branch”,

referring to the process whereby a new plant can be created from a twig.

Pros of Cloning

If the vital organs of the human body can be cloned, they can serve as backup systems for human

beings. Cloning body parts can serve as a lifesaver. When a body organ such as a kidney or heart fails

to function, it may be possible to replace it with the cloned body organ.

Cloning could help reproduce plants that are more disease-resistant. Reproducing superior plants,

especially those with nutritional superiority, could help address world hunger issues. Cloned plants also

are more predictable, which could help save millions of dollars in farming costs, and plants near

extinction could be saved through the right cloning programs.

Cloning in human beings can prove to be a solution to infertility. Cloning has the potential of serving as

an option for producing children. Cloning may make it possible to reproduce a certain trait in human

beings. We will be able to produce people with certain qualities, human beings with particular

desirable traits, thus making human beings a man-made being.

Cloning technologies can prove helpful for the researchers in genetics. They might be able to

understand the composition of genes and the effects of genetic constituents on human traits, in a

better manner. They will be able to alter genetic constituents in cloned human beings, thus simplifying

their analysis of genes. Cloning may also help us combat a wide range of genetic diseases.

Cloning can make it possible for us to obtain customized organisms and harness them for health

benefits of society. Cloning can serve as the best means to replicate animals that can be used for

research purposes.

Cloning can enable the genetic alteration of plants and animals. If positive changes can be brought

about in living beings with the help of cloning, it will indeed be a boon to mankind.

Cons of Cloning

Cloning created identical genes. It is a process of replicating a genetic constitution, thus hampering

the diversity in genes. While lessening the diversity in genes, we weaken our ability of adaptation.

Cloning is also detrimental to the beauty that lies in diversity.

While cloning allows man to tamper with genetics in human beings, it also makes deliberate

reproduction of undesirable traits, a probability. Cloning of body organs might invite malpractices in

society.

In cloning human organs and using them for transplant, or in cloning human beings themselves,

technical and economic barriers will have to be considered. Will cloned organs be cost-effective? Will

cloning techniques really reach the common man?

Moreover, cloning will put human and animal rights at stake. Will cloning fit into our ethical and moral

principles? Cloning will leave man just another man-made being. Won’t it devalue mankind? Won’t it

undermine the value of human life?

Cloning in India

Feb 13 2009

In a landmark achievement for India, the scientists at Karnal-based India’s National Dairy Research

Institute (NDRI) successfully cloned the world’s first ever buffalo calf. The scientists at NDRI are said to

have used a technique superior than that used in cloning the famous sheep- Dolly.  The buffalo calf was

born on Feb 6 2009 at NDRI campus. However, this jubilation was cut short, as the buffalo calf died five

days later due to pneumonia. It is said that the infection was caused due to complications at the time

of delivery and the cloning technique in itself was not faulty.

The cloning of the buffalo calf at NDRI was conducted under the expertise of a team of six scientists,

SK Singla, RS Manik, MS Chauhan, P Palta, RA Shah, and A George.  Though the unnamed calf died just

after five days, the scientists involved in the cloning are hopeful that the new technique implied in the

process would lead to a new era in animal science for faster multiplication of superior germplasm. This

breakthrough is expected to solve scarcity of milk production in the coming times.

Another advantage of this technique lies in the fact that it is less demanding in terms of equipment,

time and skill. At the same time, this would enable to produce calves of desired sex. As India boasts of

world’s best quality buffaloes, the new enhanced technique used by the Indian Scientists may make it

possible to clone and multiply a number of calves from a single embryo taken from a buffalo of highest

quality.

June 2009

Following the death of their first cloned buffalo, the scientists in the Indian state of Haryana cloned a

buffalo using foetal tissue. The female calf named Garima weighed 43 kilograms (95 pounds) and was

born at the National Dairy Research Institute in the city of Karnal in northern India. Scientists cloned

Garima using tissue from a foetus as part of a “hand-guided cloning technique” which allows the sex of

the calf to be chosen. Scientists said India has the largest population of buffaloes in the world and that

cloning would increase the percentage of elite animals in the species.

July 2009

Srinagar

The world’s first cloned camel produced in the desert of Dubai made news in April this year.

Dr Nisar Ahmad Wani, a senior reproductive biologist at Dubai’s Camel Reproduction Centre who had

worked as assistant professor in Sher-i-Kashmir University of Agricultural Technology, toiled for six

long years to achieve this.

Injaz or achievement in Arabic, a humped female camel, is the 12th domestic species to be cloned.

She was produced by injecting the cells harvested from the female camel ovary into a camel oocyte

(female germ cell or reproductive cell) whose nucleus had been removed. The two were then subjected

to a split-second electrical impulse and chemically activated to induce them to start dividing like a

normal fertilised egg. The resulting embryo was cultured for seven days in laboratory before it was re-

implanted into a surrogate camel.

March 22 2010

Despite their success with the “cloned water buffalo”, animal scientists at National Dairy Research

Institute (NDRI), Karnal, are not enthused about “cloning the endangered species of tigers” to save

them from becoming extinct.

Cloning experiments and their success have kindled a hope that endangered and extinct species can

be revived and tiger conservationists are looking forward to some breakthrough in tiger cloning.

While the companies in the USA are working on isolating the best breeds of cattle and poultry for

cloning to enable the farmers raise the quality of their livestock, scientists at NDRI assert that each

species of animal has different characteristics and one cloning method cannot be said to suit all.

However, the pertinent question defying an unambiguous answer is that whether “cloning” could come

to the rescue of Bengal tigers. A team of scientists headed by SK Singla associated with cloning of

buffalo by hand-guided method warns that it is more likely possible with large mammals whose fertility

characteristics are known.

Further, any tiger-cloning project would entail enormous logistics to locate sufficient donor eggs and

parent cells and there was also an element of the “unknown” if the captive-bred tigers would survive

when released into the wild.

Tiger conservationists also point out that the gene pool of wild tigers was already tiny and cloning

them will not diversify the gene pool and the best course is to preserve the tiger’s habitat and hope

the population recovers naturally.

Some characteristics of cloning animals are given below:

Cloning is more likely possible with large mammals whose fertility characteristics are known

There is a problem of harvesting eggs as tigers produce only a few eggs at a time

The project will entail enormous logistics to locate sufficient donor eggs and parent cells

10/6/2010

In Chandigarh this year 2010, it is said that two more water buffalo clones will be borne by the end of

this year.

Human cloning

Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of an existing or previously existing

human. The term is generally used to refer to artificial human cloning; human clones in the form of

identical twins are commonplace, with their cloning occurring during the natural process of

reproduction. There are two commonly discussed types of human cloning: therapeutic cloning and

reproductive cloning. Therapeutic cloning involves cloning adult cells for use in medicine and is an

active area of research. Reproductive cloning would involve making cloned humans. A third type of

cloning called replacement cloning is a theoretical possibility, and would be a combination of

therapeutic and reproductive cloning. Replacement cloning would entail the replacement of an

extensively damaged, failed, or failing body through cloning followed by whole or partial brain

transplant.

The various forms of human cloning are controversial. There have been numerous demands for all

progress in the human cloning field to be halted. Most scientific, governmental and religious

organizations oppose reproductive cloning. The American Association for the Advancement of Science

(AAAS) and other scientific organizations have made public statements suggesting that human

reproductive cloning be banned until safety issues are resolved. Serious ethical concerns have been

raised by the future possibility of harvesting organs from clones. Some people have considered the

idea of growing organs separately from a human organism – in doing this, a new organ supply could be

established without the moral implications of harvesting them from humans. Research is also being

done on the idea of growing organs that are biologically acceptable to the human body inside of other

organisms, such as pigs or cows, then transplanting them to humans, a form of xenotransplantation.

The first human hybrid human clone was created in November 1998, by American Cell Technologies. It

was created from a man’s leg cell, and a cow’s egg whose DNA was removed. It was destroyed after

12 days. Since a normal embryo implants at 14 days, Dr Robert Lanza, ACT’s director of tissue

engineering, told the Daily Mail newspaper that the embryo could not be seen as a person before 14

days. While making an embryo, which may have resulted in a complete human had it been allowed to

come to term, according to ACT: “[ACT's] aim was ‘therapeutic cloning’ not ‘reproductive cloning’”

On January, 2008, Wood and Andrew French, Stemagen’s chief scientific officer in California,

announced that they successfully created the first 5 mature human embryos using DNA from adult skin

cells, aiming to provide a source of viable embryonic stem cells. Dr. Samuel Wood and a colleague

donated skin cells, and DNA from those cells was transferred to human eggs. It is not clear if the

embryos produced would have been capable of further development, but Dr. Wood stated that if that

were possible, using the technology for reproductive cloning would be both unethical and illegal. The 5

cloned embryos, created in Stemagen Corporation lab, in La 0Jolla, were destroyed.

Cloning in Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Making steady progress in stem cell research and its clinical applications, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and

Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS) is in a position to venture into the realm of cloning.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of an international seminar on ‘Frontiers of stem cell and

biotechnology in human and veterinary medicine,’ TANUVAS Vice-Chancellor P. Thangaraju said the

varsity was conducting trials in embryo transfer in cattle and culturing of stem cells collected from

ovaries for treatment of spinal cord, joints, nerves and tendons in animals.

After successfully using autologous (patient derived) stem cell therapy for the management of a

paraplegic dog’s spinal cord injury, the varsity plans to set up an umbilical cord cell bank for animals,

especially dogs and horses. Stem cell therapy could come in handy in treating the injured tendons of

race horses, which could cost Rs 4 to 5 lakh each. Virginia Tech, a partner institution, was also working

on stem cell therapy for tendon injuries, he said.

On cloning, Mr. Thangaraju said, “We have standardised techniques for cloning rabbits. Now, we are

working on larger animals.” Unwilling to set a deadline, he said: “I am not in a position to say whether

it (cloning) is in its initial or final stage. There are impediments.”

Meanwhile, TANUVAS sources said the varsity has not taken up cloning till now as it involved ethical

issues and needed the approval of animal ethics and genetic engineering committees. At present,

TANUVAS was focussing on embryo transfer and stem cell therapy which have greater application in

clinical applications, the sources said.

Another buffalo calf cloned – 23.08.2010

A cloned buffalo calf was born at the Karnal-based National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) on

22.08.2010, where two calves were cloned a year ago, the Indian Council of Agriculture Research

(ICAR) announced here on 23.08.2010.

The buffalo calf, named Garima-II, was born through the new and advanced ‘hand-guided cloning

technique’. It weighs 32 kg and is apparently normal and healthy. “This cloned buffalo calf is different

from the earlier clone calf because, in this case, the used donor cell was an embryonic cell,” said NDRI

Director A.K. Srivastava in a press statement.

Faster multiplication 

According to him, the technology could go a long way in facilitating faster multiplication of superior

milch buffaloes in the country. “There is an acute shortage of good bulls in the country. The technology

of cloning will decrease the gap between supply and demand by breeding the bulls in the shortest

possible time,” he said.

Dr. Srivastava said that although the world’s largest population of buffaloes was in India, and it

contributed about 55 per cent to the total milk production in the country, the percentage of elite

buffaloes was low.

Dr. Srivastava and his team of scientists, including M.S. Chauhan, S.K. Singla, R.S. Manik, Shiv Prasad

and Aman George, feel that embryonic stem cells have a better cloning ability as compared to somatic

cells (used in earlier cloning) that are lineage committed.

The world’s first buffalo calf through the ‘hand-guided cloning technique’ developed by the NDRI was

born on February 6, 2010 but it could not survive beyond five days. The second cloned calf, Garima-I,

was born on June 6, 2009. It survived and is reportedly healthy.

The new calf was developed from embryos that were cultured and grown in a laboratory and then

transferred to recipient buffalo. It was born in a Caesarean operation carried out by a team of doctors

from the NDRI and Chaudhary Charan Singh Agricultural University, Hisar.

New era 

Congratulating the team, ICAR Director-General S. Ayyappan said the new technology of hand-guided

cloning of buffaloes may lead to a “new era in faster multiplication of elite germplasm to face the

challenges of increasing demands of milk in view of the ever-growing human population”.