Cloning dates back to 1885 when the first study was conducted by German scientist Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch. In 1902, he cloned a set of twin salamanders by dividing an embryo into two separate, viable embryos. Since then, there have been many breakthroughs in cloning.
Many companies in current times have commercialised cloning and are using it for several purposes. For example, in South Korea, Sooam Biotech uses the technology to clone pets. Similarly in the United States, a Texas-based cloning company Viagen Pets clones cats and dogs for their clients.
Not only animals, but cloning is also used for plants. Cloning is used to clone maple trees to provide timber for articles like guitar, furniture and statues. Plant biologists have used cloning to replicate plants through seeds as clones. The discovery, which plant breeders and geneticists have long sought, could make it easier to propagate high-yielding, disease-resistant, or climate-tolerant crops and make them available to the world's farmers.
Cloning technologies have also proved helpful in many ways. 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. If positive changes can be brought about in living beings with the help of cloning, it will indeed be a boon to mankind.
