What term describes an organism that is genetically identical to the organism from which it was produced?

• A. Clone
• B. Genome
• C. Karyotype
• D. Gene therapy

Answer: (A)

Cloning describes an organism that is genetically identical to the one it came from. When a copy is made of the entire genome, the resulting organism has the same DNA sequence as the original (ignoring tiny mutations that can occur over time). This is what we mean by a clone.

A genome is the complete set of genetic material in an organism or cell—the full instruction book, so to speak. It doesn’t by itself imply an identical copy.

A karyotype is a visual display of the chromosomes’ number and appearance in a cell, used to spot chromosomal abnormalities. It doesn’t describe genetic identity between organisms.

Gene therapy involves changing genes to treat or prevent disease, not creating genetically identical copies of an organism.