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[RC] Cloning - k s swigart

Ironically enough, I just watched an interesting Nova program on PBS
that addressed not so much cloning but the extent to which environment
affects heredity (e.g. identical twins do not express their identical
genomes in the same way and this difference in the way their genome is
expressed--called the "epigenome"--may also affect the way they pass on
their genes).

A link to the Nova program can be found here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/genes/

For anybody who is interested.

Given this, it is probably inappropriate to assume that a clone (the
same thing as an identical twin except not born at the same time...and
incidentally exposed to more environmental differences than identical
twins would be since clones are not in-utero together while identical
twins are) will breed on the same way that the original individual
did/would.

The fact is, a genetic duplicate (which is what a clone is), is not
identical to the original...perhaps not even, necessarily "genetically"
since though the DNA is the same, how that DNA is expressed in the
actual individual is different, including the actual individual's sex
cells...and if the recent studies/investigations outlined in the program
(called, "The Ghost in Your Genes") have any validity (still open to
question), then differences in the environment an indvidual is subjected
to during different developmental stages (even in utero) can have long
reaching (i.e. into the 2nd, third, and fouth generations) effects on
heritable traits (life expectancy and suceptibility to disease are two
things that were studied).

I think it important, that if registries are to register clones and
their offspring that the registries treat these clones as individuals in
their own right and not as duplicates of the original, and record their
origins, including not only the donor of the genetic material but also
the donor of the egg that the genetic material is inserted into and the
name (and parentage) of the mare into which the embryo is transfered and
it is developed.

In fact, it is may also be relevant to keep track of surrogate mothers
of regular embryo tranfers as well.

kat
Orange County, Calif.



"Le meilleur que je sais les hommes le plus que j'aime mon
cheval."--Catherine the Great



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