cloning

Introduction & Top Questions
Early cloning experiments
Reproductive cloning
Therapeutic cloning
Ethical controversy

References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics

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Will cloning bring the woolly mammoth back to life?

This diagram illustrates the cloning process of Dolly the sheep in 1996, showing how a nucleus from an adult Finn Dorset ewe was fused with an enucleated egg cell from a Scottish Blackface ewe, then implanted into a surrogate to produce Dolly.

Learn how somatic cell nuclear transfer is used for reproductive and therapeutic cloning

Related Questions

How could cloning be used in efforts to restore an extinct species such as the woolly mammoth?
How could cloning raise concerns about eugenics and human equality?
How did Robert Briggs and Thomas King clone tadpoles in the 1950s?
How did electrical pulses help create Dolly the sheep?
How do bacteria produce clones through binary fission?
How does DNA cloning help scientists make many copies of a gene?
How does mitosis produce genetically identical cells?
How does nuclear transfer differ when scientists use embryonic cells instead of adult body cells?
How does polymerase chain reaction make many copies of a DNA segment?
How does the environment affect the traits of genetically identical organisms?
How is DNA cloning different from cloning an entire animal?
What happened in the 2007 macaque cloning experiments?
Which cell was used to create Dolly the sheep?
Which other mammals have been cloned since Dolly the sheep?
Which sheep breeds were involved in the cloning of Dolly?
Who first proposed using nuclear transfer to create clones?
Why are human eggs difficult to obtain for somatic cell nuclear transfer research?
Why are induced pluripotent stem cells an alternative to therapeutic cloning?
Why are plasmids useful as vectors for DNA cloning?
Why did United Kingdom licenses require cloned human embryos to be destroyed by the 14th day of development?
Why did scientists once think adult mammal cells could not be used for cloning?
Why do ethical debates about therapeutic cloning focus on human embryos?
Why is it difficult to clone primates using somatic cell nuclear transfer?
Why might livestock farmers want to clone animals that produce more milk or finer wool?
Why was Dolly not genetically identical to the surrogate mother that carried her?
Why was Dolly the sheep an important scientific breakthrough?
Why was Polly the sheep important for pharming research?
Why were the donor mammary cells starved of nutrients before Dolly was cloned?
Why would a woolly mammoth cloning project require elephant egg cells?
What is cloning?
Why is cloning important?
Why is cloning controversial?
What are some famous cloned animals?
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External Websites

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Cloning
Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Cloning
University of Utah - Learn.Genetics - Cloning
National Human Genome Research Institute - Cloning Fact Sheet
UH Pressbooks - Concepts of Zoology Â– Hawaiʻi Edition - Cloning and Genetic Engineering
National Center for Biotechnology Information - Methods and Mechanisms of Genetic Manipulation and Cloning of Animals
Live Science - How does cloning work?

Britannica Websites

Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

cloning - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
cloning - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

cloning

genetics

Also known as: reproductive cloning

Written by

Michael Rugnetta

Fellows assistant, Center for American Progress, Washington, D.C.

Michael Rugnetta

Fact-checked by

Britannica Editors

Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....

Britannica Editors

Last updated

Oct. 26, 2026 •History

cloning, the process of generating a genetically identical copy of a cell or an organism. Cloning happens often in nature—for example, when a cell replicates itself asexually without any genetic alteration or recombination. Prokaryotic organisms (organisms lacking a cell nucleus) such as bacteria create genetically identical duplicates of themselves using binary fission or budding. In eukaryotic organisms (organisms possessing a cell nucleus) such as humans, all the cells that undergo mitosis, such as skin cells...

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