Agricultural engineers are developing methods of using cloning technologies and genetic engineering to help meet the demand for more food and for high-quality fresh food. A clone is an exact genetic replica. A clone can be an exact copy of a single gene or an entire organism. Cloning occurs in nature whenever a cell divides or an organism reproduces asexually. During cell division and sexual reproduction, genes are copied when DNA is replicated.
Asexual reproduction produces an entire cloned organism.
For example, plants often reproduce sexually, yet cloning in plant reproduction is long established and commonplace, both in nature and by humans. It can be as simple as taking a leaf or stem from a plant and allowing it to grow roots. The result is a new plant that is genetically identical to the original. In the past few decades, scientists have been developing technologies for cloning individual genes and entire organisms. Cloning of genetically complex animals, including mammals, has recently become possible.