Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

With respect to your cloning questions on ridecamp.

Since (if this horse truely is a clone), this new horse has the exact
same genetic material as the original Cash, there is little reason to
believe that he won't breed on in the same way that Cash would have, had
he not been gelded (although the jury really still is out as to whether
breeding is purely a matter of genetics, and since genetic clones are
being born with different markings than the original, there is plenty of
evidence that a genetic duplicate might not breed on in exactly the same
way as the original).  However, since there is no way to breed the
original, there is no way to ever find out if this is the case.

Lots of studies have been done on identical twins (also genetic
duplicates, and more likely to have been subjected to the same
environmental situation as well), that demonstrate that genetic
duplicates are actually only rather superficially like each other.

It IS a way to get Cash's genetic material back for breeding purposes;
however, it may not be a very good way to find out how Cash himself
would have bred on.  It is probably the best way (a better way, for
which we also have the technology would have been to freeze his semen
before cutting his balls off, but too late for that); however, the fact
remains that nobody will ever know how Cash would have bred on had he
not been gelded.  A genetic duplicate is not an exact duplicate, just a
close approximation.

The ultimate irony, of course, would be if this clone turns out to be
infertile :).

And if this is the case, it would be erroneous to jump to the conclusion
that Cash would have been as well had he not been gelded.  There is
plenty of evidence to suggest that infertility has nutritional
components as well as environmental components.  It would be a mistake
to think that infertility is the only breeding trait that is not
entirely genetically determined.

The fact is, Cash was gelded before he could sire any offspring, and
there is nothing anybody can do to change that.  Any foals that this new
horse sires will be offspring of this new horse, not offspring of Cash;
people would do well to remember that.

kat
Orange County, Calif.



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