Say! If I were to clone myself at age 20, what age would my clone be and why??? And, what knowledge would the clone possess, or would it have no motor skills, for example, at all?
Does DNA have a clock, or can a clone pick up from anywhere in our life? (Infant, teen, etc.) Might open the fountain of youth?
I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy - Hawkeye 4077th
A clone of you would be a baby and would have the same skills and knowledge of any other baby. In other words, none.
That being said, it seems that clones age faster. (Age of course does not equal knowledge) Dolly, the famous cloned sheep, is apparently physically older than her actual chronological age. The scientists involved have decided that this has something to do with structures on the ends of DNA strands. Apparently something happens to the ends of DNA strands when cells divide and the strand gets shorter. Shorter strands = older. Since Dolly was cloned from an older sheep with short DNA strands, her DNA strands are also short.
I’m quoting from memory from a news item I read. Hopefully someone here with better knowledge can better explain what is going on.
“Drink your coffee! Remember, there are people sleeping in China.”
Dennis Matheson — dennis@mountaindiver.com
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Interesting! I guess DNA serves to start the ball rolling initially, and then growth hormones, etc., kick in when the time is right to help aid in development.
So, “multiplicity” is still aways away!
Interesting! I guess DNA serves to start the ball rolling initially, and then growth hormones, etc., kick in when the time is right to help aid in development.
So, “multiplicity” is still a ways away!
Note: Double-posting was justan ironic fluke!
This is why cloning isn’t the potential menace people make it out to be. The cell your DNA would be cloned into would be an unfertilized egg. Once your DNA is in the egg cell, you stimulate it to divide like a egg fertilized by a sperm.
So your clone would start out as just an ovum, just like everyone else. Cloning is a complex procedure but a human clone itself would be no more magical than an identical twin. Your twin brother wouldn’t share your memories, for example, and neither would your clone. If it’s not encoded in your DNA, your clone wouldn’t have it.
Here’s a good article on the basics of cloning.
As for the “DNA clock”, tanstaafl gave a good summary of one of the recent observations.
We gladly devour those who would subdue us.
Ah here we go.
The structures tan described at the ends of DNA are called telomeres.
You can read more here.
So, if an eldery person were cloned, we might get an infant who dies of old age?
–It was recently discovered that research causes cancer in rats.
My Bio friends have been trying to explain to me that when DNA splits (zipper-like fashion) enzymes zip the new duplicate right back into the right place. If it screws up then a fix-it enzyme comes along and makes corrections.
Since this happens over and over again there as time goes on the possibility for error increases. I think that’s supposed to be one value of cloning from younger animals - younger DNA.
IIRC - if you have a gene for cancer of the earlobe and it is paired with a stop-cancer-of-the-earlobe and something happens to the stop-cancer-of-the-earlobe you are in trouble. Again over time the possibility of the of an error in one or the other increases. Again younger DNA is better for cloning.
Oh, I’m gonna keep using these #%@&* codes 'til I get 'em right.
Another fun fact about telomeres is involves the enzyme that maintains them, called telomerase.
Since the telomeres of older people tend to be shorter than those of young uns, it was hypothesized that modified telomerases could be used to slow the aging process.
A lot of money was funneled into telomerase research by drug companies, but IIRC, the results did not indicate that telomerases were the enzymatic fountain of youth some people tought they were.
We gladly devour those who would subdue us.
Alphagene’s link to the Scientific American article on cloning requires a ‘colon space ‘80’’ after the ‘com’, in order to work.
Ray
In reference to the mention of DNA errors in duplication:
It sounds like DNA is another manifestation of chaos in physics. If we could be alive forever, the vast number of mutations would (potentially) win out, over time, and change us into, perhaps, a gross blob of protoplasm. Perhaps cancer is just chaos taking its toll over time.