# Typo in Plant DNA article **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [August 30, 2002, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typo-in-plant-dna-article/126333 "2002-08-30T17:55:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2002, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typo-in-plant-dna-article/126333/1 "2002-08-30T17:55:16Z")
In the last sentence of the “identify plants by their DNA” article at [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mplantdna.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mplantdna.html), ol’ Doug and/or Colibri accidentally misspelled “riflip” as “riplip”. This conjured up images of the Topps _Wacky Packages_ bubble gum stickers from my childhood, which included “Liptorn molten lava soup (with 8 deadly servings)”. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2002, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typo-in-plant-dna-article/126333/2 "2002-08-30T22:17:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tracer \* > **In the last sentence of the “identify plants by their DNA” article at [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mplantdna.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mplantdna.html), ol’ Doug and/or Colibri accidentally misspelled “riflip” as “riplip”.** Don’t blame us! That was, I believe, what is known in the trade as an “editing error.” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Carlitos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f6c823/32.png) [@Carlitos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carlitos)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2002, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typo-in-plant-dna-article/126333/3 "2002-09-01T16:38:13Z")
Just wanted to point out a tiny additional point regarding the original plant DNA question. If I had 50 apple trees planted in my yard that I got from, say, Stark Bros. Nursery, I prolly couldn’t ID which tree an apple came from using RFLP’s unless they were all different varieties. Although people may all be different, there are many varieties of plants which are genetically identical clones. All the Red Delicious apples in the world are artificially propagated clones of one tree found in, umm, I think in was Iowa in the 1890’s. There may be some differences between the different sub-cultivars of Red Delicious, but all the Starkspur Red Delicious © trees you would get from Stark would be (barring some extremely unlikely cosmic ray coincidences) IDENTICAL clones in every way. Cloning may be a technology for large animals, but the Greeks were basically cloning olive trees 3000+ years ago. Also, while I’m being extra extra tiresome, let me add that that the biggest difference between plants and animals, DNA-wise, is that plant have aditional DNA in their chloroplasts, since they, like mitochondria, are the product of an “endosymbiotic event” a very long time ago. Chloroplasts and mitochondria are basically cyanobacteria and Giardia-like eukayotes, respectively, that have been “domesticated” by eukaryotic cells; they still reproduce on their own using their own DNA. Boy, that extra DNA can be a real pain in the ass if you let it mix in with the nuclear DNA. Quick, lads, to your centrefuges! ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2002, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typo-in-plant-dna-article/126333/4 "2002-09-01T18:17:03Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Carlitos \* > **Just wanted to point out a tiny additional point regarding the original plant DNA question. If I had 50 apple trees planted in my yard that I got from, say, Stark Bros. Nursery, I prolly couldn’t ID which tree an apple came from using RFLP’s unless they were all different varieties. Although people may all be different, there are many varieties of plants which are genetically identical clones** Thanks, Carlitos, but that’s pretty much what we said. As was noted in the first paragraph of the article, even “identical” clones are not absolutely identical genetically, but probably differ by at least a few nucleotides. And we also said that because clones are much more similar than organisms produced by sexual reproduction, RFLPs would be of limited use in distinguishing them. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2002, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/typo-in-plant-dna-article/126333/5 "2002-09-01T20:24:53Z")
> [@](#): > > Chloroplasts and mitochondria are basically cyanobacteria and Giardia-like **eukayotes** , respectively, (bolding mine) You meant prokaryotes, right? Is there a corellary of **Gaudere** ’s Law for statements of fact?