Cloning

[Spider24]

What factors might cause Dolly and the sheep that she was cloned from to differ?

 

I'm doing an paper on what people might think the factors could be.

 

I need input, please!!

[pgrmdave]

Well, since the brain depends on environmental input, and the environments they grew up in were not the same, that would be at least one factor. Unless the environments were precisely the same, down to the molecule, there would be differences.

[Spider24]

Would you predict that a clone produced as Dolly was would be a carbon copy of the animal from which the nucleaus was obtained?

[Turtle]

Would you predict that a clone produced as Dolly was would be a carbon copy of the animal from which the nucleaus was obtained?

__Simply no. Any cause/effect chain is dependant on initial conditions & as time is a constituant of the initial conditions (when fertilized in this case) & the events occur at different times (always for all events) the sheep or any clone is not a carbon copy. :hihi: :lol:

[Spider24]

good point. Thanks.

[Spider24]

What variables cause a human clone to differ from the person who donated the genetic material?

 

Cell division or is it more involved than that?

[Turtle]

___I don't know the specific chemical mecahnisms, but rather the general operations of systems. Some general conditions such as acidity, temperature, salinity, radiation, etc. affect many chemical reactions. :lol: :singer: Others here have more knowledge on this than I; give the thread some time. :hihi:

[alxian]

a better question is how are dolly and her sponsor similar.

 

they are like identical twins who differ in personality and some physical features based on their different development.

 

i'm surprised UA hasn't posted. i think (he thinks) he's a pretty good authority on the subject having made excellent points in similar threads.

[GAHD]

Dolly = eye color

[Boerseun]

Is it a given for a clone to be the same sex as the donor?

 

As far as I have it, a mammal foetus is sexless for the first couple of weeks, and is hanging around the in womb with all the equipment required for both genders. That's why men have nipples. Some even cry in movies.

After the first few weeks (don't ask me how many, I don't know the exact time) the gender is mostly determined by the acidity level in the womb. A slight pH difference either way will result in either a male or female being born.

 

I'm not into the medical sciences at all - but how does cloning get around that?

 

'Cause the way I have it, is that cloning entails only the initial donor egg-cell, and the animal-to-be-cloned's DNA. Which means cell division starts right from the beginning, with the foetus also having to go through the acidic sex-selection process.

 

Things that make you go 'hmmmmmm'.....

 

Which means if you clone a human male, and a female gets born, it'll probably look like a twin sister or something.

[Little Bang]

I would think that chaos theory would prevent the clone from being an exact copy.

[infamous]

I would think that chaos theory would prevent the clone from being an exact copy.

Very good point Little Bang, I would tend to agree with your assessment.

[alxian]

i thought it was a mammal foetus is female till hormones make it male

[GAHD]

And here I thought it was an X or a Y in the right place

[Fishteacher73]

Prenatal care! Pick just about any item and there is some concern about its affect upon fetal development. Just take alcohol for oen, or smoking...Not that you would have drunk and high ewes, but what ever the diet was would play a role, as well as stress factors alter the maternal chemistry. All of these will have some sort of affect upon the fetus.

[geokker]

The telomere differed significantly in Dolly. This is a surprisingly complex structure at the tail of the DNA. The telomere degrades a little every cellular division. There is a threshold when the telomere is so eroded that it can no longer divide, which causes cell death. Remember, a cell is born when a stem cell differentiates and dies when the daughter cells can no longer divide. So, Cellular lifespan depends on the 'length' of the telomere. We age and die because of this - in addition to diseases (creatures), accidents (physical), poisoning (toxins e.g. MacDonalds) of course.

 

As long as we have a predetermined number of cell divisions, we will surely die despite eliminating all other risks. There are ways the telomere can be 'hardened' e.g. telomerase thereapy but if cells don't stop dividing they become cancerous - catch 22.

 

Dolly died young because of this. If your going to clone, clone from an embryo. Innit.