Cloning is the production of an exact copy of a cell, or any other living part, or a complete organism by using some living cells of an organism.
Cloning of an animal was successfully performed for the first time by Ian Wilmutand his colleagues at the Roslin Institute in Edinburgh, Scotland.
They successfully cloned a sheep named Dolly.
During the process of cloning Dolly, a cell was collected from the mammary gland of a female Finn Dorsett sheep. Simultaneously, an egg was obtained from a Scottish blackface ewe.
The nucleus was removed from the egg. Then, the nucleus of the mammary gland cell from the Finn Dorsett sheep was inserted into the egg of the Scottish blackface ewe whose nucleus had been removed. The egg thus produced was implanted into the uterus of Scottish blackface ewe.
Development of this egg followed normally and finally Dolly was born.
It was found to be absolutely identical to the Finn Dorsett sheep from which the nucleus was taken.
Unfortunately, Dolly died on 14th February 2003 due to a certain lung disease.
