Mitochondrial DNA/RNA in first human clone
Archimedes Plutonium
I just wonder when human cloning gets common and widespread that the
Mitochondrial RNA/DNA will offer so much variation that the result will
not be look alikes but offer humanity wider diversity. Perhaps it will
be possible to utilize the mitochondrial RNA/DNA to get desired traits.
Take this as an example although I am stretching it very far.
Suppose we want to improve eyes of humans. So we take owl cells and
insert human DNA. We still have the owl Mitochondrial RNA/DNA and it
affects and improves the eyes of the human born from this union of
human DNA into owl cell.
Perhaps we can achieve both diversity and improvement in human
genetics with the advent of human cloning.
Subject: [BBC] First Cloned Human Embryo revealed
In article <37696BDF...@hotmail.com> on 17 Jun 1999 writes:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/low/english/sci/tech/newsid_371000/371378.stm
Thursday, June 17, 1999 Published at 11:45 GMT 12:45 UK
First cloned human embryo revealed
First cloned human embryo revealed
Details of the first human embryo to be cloned have been released.
The watershed achievement in biotechnology actually happened last
November, but more
information was revealed on Thursday. It was achieved using a cell from
a man's leg and a cow's
egg.
The scientists who created the clone see it as a significant step
forward in the search for a way of
producing human stem cells.
These are "master" cells which can develop into any type of cell -
skin,
bone, blood etc. They are
believed to have the potential to provide perfect-match tissue for
transplantation and the treatment of
diseases such as Parkinson's and stroke.
Cloning questions
But this development will also see a significant heightening of the
debate over the ethics of human
cloning and, indeed, what it means to be a human.
American Cell Technology (ACT), a leading, private biotechnology
company, cloned the first human
embryo and let it develop for twelve days before destroying it. In a
normal pregancy, an embryo
implants into the womb wall after 14 days.
Dr Robert Lanza, ACT's director of tissue engineering, told the Daily
Mail newspaper that the
embryo cannot be seen as a person before 14 days. The company say they
have released news of
the discovery to try to allay fears over the artificial conception of
life.
It is believed that many more human embryos have been created and
destroyed since November.
Then it was announced that stem cells had been cloned, not that embryos
had been allowed to
develop.
No cloned children
ACT say they have no intention of attempting to use a cloned human
embryo to start a pregnancy -
their aim is "therapeutic cloning" not "reproductive cloning".
Lord Robert Winston, a British fertility expert, said the research was
"totally ethical".
But opponents say that the development of the technology makes the
eventual birth of a human clone
inevitable. This, they say, would have profound implications for the
nature of family relationships, the
law and health.
Tough technology
The technology used to create the clone was very similar to that used
to
make Dolly the Sheep.
Over 200 embryos were used before Dolly finally appeared, showing that
cloning is not a
well-understood or easy-to-perform technique.
It is understood that ACT used a cow's egg. This had its DNA removed
and
replaced with human
DNA. The new cell was then chemically persuaded to behave like a new
embryo and start dividing.
This is how ACT hope to cultivate stem cells.
But Dr Maisam Mitalipova, a pioneer of this human-cow type of cloning,
told the Daily Mail: "We
didn't get good quality embryos and so they may not get good quality
stem cells."
Cloning competition
Another US company, Geron, are also reported to be attempting to clone
human embryos for
therapeutic purposes.
They recently bought all the shares in Roslin Bio-Med, a company set up
to commercialise the
cloning expertise of the Roslin Institute, Scotland, where Dolly the
sheep was created.
Geron has not publicly stated whether their attempts have been
successful and it may be that ACT
have acheived the feat first.
Harald Teepe
Archimedes Plutonium schrieb:
> In the below article about a human cloning experiment using cow cells,
> I just wonder when human cloning gets common and widespread that the
> Mitochondrial RNA/DNA will offer so much variation that the result will
> not be look alikes but offer humanity wider diversity. Perhaps it will
> be possible to utilize the mitochondrial RNA/DNA to get desired traits.
> Take this as an example although I am stretching it very far.
>
> Suppose we want to improve eyes of humans. So we take owl cells and
> insert human DNA. We still have the owl Mitochondrial RNA/DNA and it
> affects and improves the eyes of the human born from this union of
> human DNA into owl cell.
"Changing eyes" does not suffice. Information has to be interperted by the
brain. So you also had to change basic central nervous structures that
are intertwined with others. It's more complex than it seems to be.
Archimedes Plutonium
Harald Teepe <Harald...@post.rwth-aachen.de> writes:
> "Changing eyes" does not suffice. Information has to be interperted by the
> brain. So you also had to change basic central nervous structures that
> are intertwined with others. It's more complex than it seems to be.
Yes I agree with you that improving eyes is very difficult.
But my point still stands. I was using eyes as a "for instance". Few
will doubt that mitochondrial DNA/RNA would alter a human clone from
its parent is some "details". We expect that human cloning will not be
a 100% transfer, nothing like identical twins. Human cloning will
probably capture many of the features and characteristics of the
parent, but diversity will occur and this diversity may have a
percentage due to mitochondrial DNA/RNA
Luchino Cohen
Archimedes Plutonium wrote:
> Suppose we want to improve eyes of humans. So we take owl cells and
> insert human DNA. We still have the owl Mitochondrial RNA/DNA and it
> affects and improves the eyes of the human born from this union of
> human DNA into owl cell.
If you want to improve human eyes and give them an owl's eye capacity,
you'd better insert owl's DNA into human cells which are going to develop
into the eye structure.
But you choose so strange examples: with an owl-human chimera, will you be
able to bear the sun's light ?