2021-11-03 19:12:18
As you know, the first cloned animal was the famous Dolly the sheep, which was born in 1996. The cloning technique is now more than a quarter of a century old. In those years, there was great scientific curiosity and I think, at the same time, something unhealthy, about the cloning procedure and what it could mean from an economic and even health point of view. There was talk of cloning the best dairy cows, the best sheep and calves for meat, or the best laying hens. Cloning was a method of preserving and multiplying the most useful or interesting animals. Some future derivative of the cloning technique could perhaps also be used in the future to generate organs or stem cells compatible with a patient in need of a transplant or organ regeneration.
It wasn’t just farm animals that were interesting to clone. Also pets were of interest. Thus, in 2002, it was published that a cat had been successfully cloned, well actually a cat, which turned out to be very different from the original. Let’s see what he had almost twenty years ago about this interesting subject and why the cloned cat was so different from the original. read the article
For me, the process of inactivation of the X chromosome is one of the most interesting in biology and the molecular mechanism by which it occurs is still not completely known. The evidence accumulated to date suggests that there is a protein that binds to the so-called inactivation center of the X chromosome. This protein is not produced in the case of male cells and only a single copy is produced in the case of female cells, so in this case can only bind to one of the X chromosomes to inactivate it. The union of this protein or factor leads to the compact packaging of the chromosome, which turns it into a corpuscle present in the cell nucleus, called the Barr body, with two R’s. The packaging prevents access to the ADN of the chromosome of the transcription factors necessary for the generation of ARNm from the genes, so the genes of the inactivated chromosome cannot express themselves, that is, convert their information into proteins or necessary parts for the cellular or organism’s machinery.
It may be worth briefly recalling the cloning process. It is about isolating an unfertilized egg and extracting its nucleus, leaving it without genetic information. Next, a nucleus from an adult cell containing two pairs of the chromosome set is introduced into the egg. A small electric shock, for some reason, makes the egg believe that it has been fertilized and embryonic development begins. At or very shortly thereafter, the packaged X chromosome is activated. It is only later in embryonic development that the process of random inactivation of one of the X chromosomes occurs.
The cloning technique remains as it is, with few modifications. Today, in fact, there are private companies dedicated to cloning pets, particularly cats, dogs and even horses. Yes, today it is possible to clone our beloved pets, that adorable kitten or faithful puppy that had accompanied and loved us throughout his life, so that we can enjoy him again after his death.
Apart from interesting ethical problems, pet cloning also opens the door to interesting biological questions. The cloning of pets, animals with which we live and observe for long periods, has revealed to those who have done it that apparently cloning is the authentic copy of an animal with its physical and, above all, psychological and temperamental characteristics. , it is impossible. This indicates quite clearly that individuals are not born, nor are they just made from nothing, but are built from the genetic characteristics that they have inherited in the environment in which they have lived, which is never the same for each other. no one, not even for a clone. We are all truly unique and unrepeatable, not because it is a nice idea, but because we only exist in a fragment of space-time that is also unique and that has been necessary to build us as individuals.
(Jorge Laborda 11/03/2021)
Works by Jorge Laborda.
Your defenses against coronavirus
Your defenses against coronavirus
Deflamed immunology: An introduction to the immune system and its pathologies
Deflamed immunology: An introduction to the immune system and its pathologies
Deflamed immunology: An introduction to the immune system and its pathologies
Kilo of Science Volume XII eBook
Kilo of Science Volume XII Paper
Kilo of Science Volume I. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume II. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume III. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume IV. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume V. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume VI. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume VII. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume VIII. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume IX. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume X. Jorge Laborda
Kilo of Science Volume XI. Jorge Laborda
Matrix of homeopathy
Chained circumstances. Ed.Lulu
Chained circumstances. Amazon
One moon, one civilization. Why the Moon tells us that we are alone in the Universe
One moon, one civilization. Why the Moon tells us that we are alone in the Universe
One Moon one civilization why the Moon tells us we are alone in the universe
The thousand and one bases of ADN and other science stories
Adenius Fidelius
The intelligence funnel and other essays
The gods have been cloned
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