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Article: Clone
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Clone
The word "clone" has several different meanings in biology. As a noun, a clone is an identical genetic copy of either a piece of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), a cell, or a whole organism. Identical twins are clones, as are two daughter cells produced by
mitosis
. As a verb, "to clone" means to produce identical genetic copies of either pieces of DNA, cells, or whole organisms.
Cloning DNA
DNA cloning is usually performed for one of two reasons: either to produce a lot of identical DNA for further study, or to use the DNA in an intact organism to produce useful
proteins
. In the first case, for example, a researcher might want to determine the DNA sequence of the gene or study ...