COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Rainbow the cat is a typical calico with splotches of brown, tan and gold on white. CC, her clone, has a striped gray coat over white. Rainbow is reserved. Cc is curious and playful. Rainbow is chunky. CC is sleek. Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society might be inclined to say: I told you so. But then, so would CC’s creators at Texas A&M University. Sure, you can clone your favorite cat. But the copy will not necessarily act or even look like the original.
It doesn’t take a degree in biology to know that the genotype does not regulate one’s characteristics in full. All the differences between the two cats are phenotypical.
A clone is an exact genetic copy. It doesn’t mean there will be exact expression, an exact phenotypic copy because not all traits are entirely genetically based. Thus when you refer to a clone, you don’t refer to it being visibly the same.
In the case of the calico cat, what’s even worse is that X chromosomes are randomly deactivated and turned into barr bodies. This means that the expression of certain genes throughout the cat will have different phenotypic effects due to the randomness of the deactivation. All organisms with more than 1 X have 1 X randomly deactivated, but the calico cat and other traits in other organisms act this way because of the presence or absence of expression in certain areas.
A whole lot of people have misunderstood how cloning works. It’s pretty evident from all those people who thinks that cloning their beloved pet will bring it back, it wont. The clone will just look like it. Sorry to break it to you, if you were one of those.
I though as well it was common knowlege. A clone might look like the original, but personality and other mental things that are aquired by experiences are anoter thing.
Originally posted by Booken I seriously think that people going “Old news” have nothing interesting/better to say, and just go that way like people went “FREE POST! :D”
Well it is less spamy to say “Old News” then “Free Post!”