srimukh Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 Animals are often cloned by the method of 'somatic cell nuclear transfer'. suppose, a cow which is about 10 years old is cloned by method of SCNT, its somatic cell nucleus has the genes which already have the information of how old the cow is i.e 10 yrs. now in this method, the complete nucleus of the somatic cell is transfered to an egg-cell of a donor. then this zygote is implanted artificially into another cows womb. After a new calf(clone) is born, will its initial age be 10 years? will its 1st birthday be its 10th birthday? Average lifespan of a cow is about 20 yrs, so will this CLONED COW live only 10 years more? Waiting for input.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iNow Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 After a new calf(clone) is born, will its initial age be 10 years? will its 1st birthday be its 10th birthday? No. It will be its first. A birthday celebrates the number of trips around the sun from the starting point of birth... from the starting point of exit from the birth canal. It matters not how old the DNA was which was involved in the conception. The only thing which matters with birthdays is number of trips around the sun relative to some arbitrary date of passage from inside the mother to outside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
srimukh Posted May 17, 2009 Author Share Posted May 17, 2009 Hey, but it should live only half that life.... about 10 yrs. genes do affect the age of an organism. have u heard of the 1st cloned mammal, a sheep named Dolly. which was a clone of a sheep of age 6yrs. it survived only six years more while a normal sheep's lifespan is about12yrs. hows that possible?..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cameron marical Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 Correct me If Im wrong, but... The DNA of that cow clone will be at the same point as the cow It was cloned after, so, I belevive, that yes, It would live around as long as the other and not a normal healthy new cow,{If they both live similiar lives afterward}. Though i may be totally wrong. Im not quite sure If the dna would be "restarted" at the begining or start off where it was copied off of. Though my hypothesis is the latter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ydoaPs Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 Hey, but it should live only half that life.... about 10 yrs. genes do affect the age of an organism. have u heard of the 1st cloned mammal, a sheep named Dolly. which was a clone of a sheep of age 6yrs. it survived only six years more while a normal sheep's lifespan is about12yrs. hows that possible?..... The parent cell is already old. It's telomeres have already shortened some from cell division. The shortening is passed on to the daughter cells. Thus, the clone will not live a full lifetime. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cap'n Refsmmat Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 What exactly is it that makes gametes have full-length telomeres when they have been produced by an organism that is many years old already? Or do they not? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ydoaPs Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 What exactly is it that makes gametes have full-length telomeres when they have been produced by an organism that is many years old already? Or do they not? That's a great point. I have no idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sayonara Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 What exactly is it that makes gametes have full-length telomeres when they have been produced by an organism that is many years old already? Or do they not? They must have. Otherwise the maximum possible number of generations would be the number of telomeres in the "original" parent generation. Good question that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackson33 Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 Animals are often cloned by the method of 'somatic cell nuclear transfer'. suppose, a cow which is about 10 years old is cloned by method of SCNT, its somatic cell nucleus has the genes which already have the information of how old the cow is i.e 10 yrs. now in this method, the complete nucleus of the somatic cell is transfered to an egg-cell of a donor. then this zygote is implanted artificially into another cows womb. After a new calf(clone) is born, will its initial age be 10 years? will its 1st birthday be its 10th birthday? Average lifespan of a cow is about 20 yrs, so will this CLONED COW live only 10 years more? Waiting for input.... http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v22/n1/full/nbt0104-25.html It is widely accepted that at least some populations of cloned animals have an attenuated lifespan compared with their conventionally bred counterparts. This has been attributed both to premature aging or senescence and to accumulation of abnormalities in gene expression in their tissues. Here, we argue that these problems arise because the process of nuclear transfer used to create cloned animals skips one of the two essential, independent steps involved in the reprogramming of cell nuclei. ------------------ srimukh; As I understand aging, it's the reduced ability for regeneration of cells during a lifetime and that all living cells are constantly in that process. I also understand one argument opposed to incest, other than moral, is that the closer the genetic structure of two mates, the more potential for all problems, including that of aging. If you tie these two things into one scenario, then if cloning involves like genetic structures (must be to produce a like result*) then the same results of mating and cloning would result. (opinion) * http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12374931 Cloning by nuclear transfer from adult somatic cells is a remarkable demonstration of developmental plasticity. When a nucleus is placed in oocyte cytoplasm, the changes in chromatin structure that govern differentiation can be reversed, and the nucleus can be made to control development to term. ------------------- Others; Maybe this observation will help... --------------- http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/T/Telomeres.html Telomeres are important so their steady shrinking with each mitosis might impose a finite life span on cells. This, in fact, is the case. Normal (non-cancerous) cells do not grow indefinitely when placed in culture. Cells removed from a newborn infant and placed in culture will go on to divide almost 100 times. Well before the end, however, their rate of mitosis declines (to less than once every two weeks). Were my cells to be cultured (I am 77 years old), they would manage only a couple of dozen mitoses before they ceased dividing and died out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GDG Posted May 17, 2009 Share Posted May 17, 2009 What exactly is it that makes gametes have full-length telomeres when they have been produced by an organism that is many years old already? Or do they not? An enzyme called telomerase. Normally turned off in somatic cells, telomerase activity is often a sign of cancer (tumor cells inappropriately express telomerase, and thus extend their own lifetimes -- thus the term, "immortalized"). Of course, in humans the female is born with all the eggs she will ever use. Only male spermatogonia need to express telomerase. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cetus Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 the problem with cloning is that the nucli is the same age a the host so the egg and sperm will be the same age as the host there for the baby will look like a baby but be 50 (example) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CharonY Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 Incorrect as already addressed above. A cell does not necessarily has the same age as the organism as a whole. In addition to telomere length certain epigenetic modifications have also been associated with cell aging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cetus Posted May 21, 2009 Share Posted May 21, 2009 so will a baby live the same lenght as the host as it is the DNA of the host used to create the baby Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MM6 Posted May 23, 2009 Share Posted May 23, 2009 ^ No. Environmental factors affect aging, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cetus Posted May 26, 2009 Share Posted May 26, 2009 but if there is no other factors it will live the same age Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now