Advantage of cloning?

[Pat]

Jerry, No problem, It is good to have to exercise the little grey cells as my favorite Belgian detective always said.

Cloning, if not way improved over the current state of the art, would not really save an endangered species but would introduce and or amplify genetic problems into the population (Xerox copy of a Xerox copy problem... with increasing entropy or "noise.") IF you wanted tiger looking things to put in a zoo then clones that are viable health wise woulld fill the bill but not make good mating partners for preserving the species.

Cloning of indigvidual organs would be a boon to mankind and could perhaps save rhinos. tigers and such animals as as are slaughtered to make hilts for decorative daggers for Arabs or are ground up to make phony "medicines" and aphrodisiacs. You could clone rhino horn and tiger parts and such for the market place to take the pressure off the animals through poaching.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[lovethesticks]

Yes MacIntoshs are all from the same original tree. But one grown in Michigan does not taste the same as one grown in Connecticut. I loved eating Gravenstein apples in Washington State, but the ones grown in Michigan lack the flavor, "bite" and size of the ones in Washington. Would a clone be a clone if raised in a different environment? I'll let the intelligent people sort that one out. Chris

[Pat]

Yet more evidence brought to bear in the "NATURE" vs "NURTURE" debate! The environment in the widest sense of he word makes the difference. The weather, climate, soil, and all factors involving the health and welfare of the tree have a potential effect on the fruit.

The genetics of the cuttings used for grafting are a pattern, a set of instructions of how to assemble the available ingredients into a tree and its fruit and there are many factors that have influence over the final resultant fruit.

The good news is that by grafting you are actually getting a tree that is a part of the original tree, not a daughter tree but an actual part of the original tree. There are no introduced genetic differences or errors like you could get by planting seeds produced by the original tree. All those trees are actually just widely separated pieces of the same tree. This gets arouind the Xerox copy of a Xerox copy problem for the most part. YOu can still have replicative mutations when new cells are formed but this is a lower order source of defect as compared to cloning.

Now if you want to talk about risk... If some disease comes along that is really bad news for one of the trees it is potentially a real killer for any/all of the trees that are exposed.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]