6.2.12

Cloning Plants

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Cloning Plants

Plants can be cloned in two main ways:

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Cuttings

  • Good parent plants are used by gardeners as a source of cuttings.
  • To take a cutting, a branch is cut off from the parent plant. Hormones are then used to encourage the roots to grow and the cutting is then planted.
  • Planting cuttings produce clones of the parent plant.
  • This allows a large number of plants with favourable characteristics to be produced quickly and cheaply.
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Tissue culture

  • Small groups of cells are extracted (taken) from a plant and placed in a growth medium (such as a petri dish with plant food in).
  • Division of these cells will eventually result in the formation of a clone of the parent plant.
  • The advantages of this technique are that it is quick, space-efficient and time-independent.
  • This technique is important for commercial use in nurseries and the preservation of rare species.

Jump to other topics

1Cell Biology

1.1What's in Cells?

1.2Cell Division

1.3Transport in Cells

2Organisation

2.1Principles of Organisation

2.2Enzymes

2.3Circulatory System

2.4Non-Communicable Diseases

2.5Plant Tissues, Organs & Systems

3Infection & Response

4Bioenergetics

5Homeostasis & Response

5.1Homeostasis

5.2The Human Nervous System

5.3Hormonal Coordination in Humans

5.4Plant Hormones

6Inheritance, Variation & Evolution

7Ecology

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