Weird, stupid question concerning cloning

[Sminty_Smeagol]

Hey, I don't know too much about this matter, but I just thought of this several days ago. If someone was male, preserved some, erm, special liquid, and then got a gender change in to a female and was impregnated in some lab somewhere with their male cells.... would that make a clone???

woo... I forget how cloning even works. But I think of stupid things.

[jerseydevil]

Well even if he got a sex change into a woman - it's still physologically impossible for him/her to carry the baby or to even produce eggs.

basically the way cloning works is the take out the DNA contained in the egg and then add the DNA from the thing which is being cloned. I think they then shock it in order to get it to start to develop and divide.

[Sminty_Smeagol]

so they cant even do full gender changes yet?

[jerseydevil]

Originally posted by Sminty_Smeagol
so they cant even do full gender changes yet?

Nope- all they do is just rework the outisde and somewhat of the inside. But they still can't create the all the sexual organs of a female.

[Sminty_Smeagol]

oh. well maybe if they ever learn how to do that, if it's even possible, all the conceited people can go make clones of themselves to bless (curse) the world with...

dundundun

[Mirahzi]

Originally posted by Sminty_Smeagol
Hey, I don't know too much about this matter, but I just thought of this several days ago. If someone was male, preserved some, erm, special liquid, and then got a gender change in to a female and was impregnated in some lab somewhere with their male cells.... would that make a clone???

Not quite. A clone is a perfect genetic copy of another organism. Physical features are determined by genes, and there are different combinations of genes that produce different features.

For example:
Two A (Capital letter indicates a dominant gene) genes will produce.. blonde hair.
An A and an a will also produce blond hair.
And, two a (lower case letter indicates recessive gene) genes will produce brown hair.

A dominant gene combined with recessiev gene will still produce the dominant feature (hence, dominance).

If a person has the Aa combination, then when he reproduces with himself, (Aa + Aa, the progeny will either have the AA, Aa, or aa. So, although its possible to create a clone by combining one's own genes (in a wierd, sick way :/) it's not likely.

Of course, this might be better explained by someone with a more extensive knowledge of genetics.

[gollum9630]

Originally posted by jerseydevil
Well even if he got a sex change into a woman - it's still physologically impossible for him/her to carry the baby or to even produce eggs.

basically the way cloning works is the take out the DNA contained in the egg and then add the DNA from the thing which is being cloned. I think they then shock it in order to get it to start to develop and divide.

for once i actually agree with JD on something

[Insidious Rex]

Actually forget about cloning. We can do this without the need to resort to cloning. Isnt technology grande! Seems as if they have now been able to turn a random body cell into an egg cell which means that a male could create both an egg and a sperm thereby fertilizing himself if he wants. or two guys could raise "natural" children as well. so looks like we wont be needing you gals anymore. oh but wait. yer still a lot more attractive then your average test tube. so stick around a little longer.

anyway heres some info from an article on this:

Scientists in Pennsylvania yesterday said they had turned ordinary mouse embryo cells into egg cells in laboratory dishes -- an advance that opens the door to creating "designer" eggs from scratch and, if repeated with human cells, could blur the biological line between fathers and mothers.

The work undermines the standard model of parenthood because the scientists made egg cells not only from female cells, but also from male cells, indicating that even males have the biological capacity to make eggs.

If the science holds true in humans as in mice -- and several scientists said they suspect it will -- then a gay male couple might, before long, be able to produce children through sexual reproduction, with one man contributing sperm and the other fresh eggs bearing his own genes.

That scenario raises difficult questions, including whether the second man would be recognized as the child's biological mother.

"It's absolutely remarkable," said Lee Silver, a Princeton molecular biologist who specializes in reproductive ethics. "This breaks down all the classic barriers in terms of sexual reproduction, with none of the problems of cloning."

Cloning produces offspring from just one parent, raising genetic and ethical problems that are not raised by the laboratory cultivation of eggs and sperm -- although the new work, in which embryonic stem cells spontaneously transformed themselves into eggs, raises issues of its own....

from
here

[Bombadillo]

If Osama is ever caught, he really should get a sex change and be sent back to Afghanistan.
But would he be considered a real, true, 'inferior,' female or just a bearded drag queen, because he/she/it would have no eggs? It's a rhetorical question.

[Elven Archer]

Originally posted by jerseydevil
Nope- all they do is just rework the outisde and somewhat of the inside. But they still can't create the all the sexual organs of a female.

I was listening to Paul Harvey News and Comment a couple of months ago and he said something about some somthing in Japan or somewhere accepting male volunteers for some kind of experiment or something. well my memory's really bad but the jest of it was that they're trying to make it to where guys can give birth by artificial organs or something like that.

has nothing to do with cloning but ya'll reminded me of that.

[johnnyrod]

Mirahzi is quite right, though I think they left out a simpler bit of explanation, so if I may...

Every bit of genetic information is made up of two bits, which may be different or the same, and they way them combine gives different characteristics, as Mirahzi has explained. The genetic information carried by eggs and sperm is only half of this, broken more or less at random, so you wouldn't know whether you were passing on the "A"s or the "a"s, if you're with me. So, even if you fertilised yourself, you could still get one of up to four possible outcomes for each gene. Real cloning just takes the whole genetic info without splitting or recombining, so it is a perfect copy. Does that make sense?

[Ruinel]

Gives new meaning to the words.... 'go f^%k yourself.'

[Sminty_Smeagol]

Well then, my speculation was sort of accurate, except that gender change isn't required.

Ok, I don't really get this part... so they have a fertilized egg (from one person)... what do they do with it? Stick it in a cat?

...Or would they have to get some woman to grow/birth it?

In which case, Insidious, women are still very neccessary

If they can make an egg cell from a male, could they make a sperm cell from a female...?

[Insidious Rex]

Originally posted by Sminty_Smeagol
In which case, Insidious, women are still very neccessary

yeah well in that case they could just keep you in a lab strapped to a gerny as some kind of perminant birthing machine. and youd lose out on all the fun of the whole fertilization process see.

If they can make an egg cell from a male, could they make a sperm cell from a female...?

no way! then you wouldnt need guys!! that would never get funded.

[Sminty_Smeagol]

heh, then you really WOULDNT need guys! But see, women are still neccessary either way. I WIN!

[Sminty_Smeagol]

...goes to show, when it all comes down to it....females are essential. Males are excess.

[Gwaimir Windgem]

They ain't makin' sperm cells yet.

[Sminty_Smeagol]

Eh, they will. Just you wait

[Insidious Rex]

Originally posted by Gwaimir Windgem
They ain't makin' sperm cells yet.

yeah sorry sminty youll have to keep doing it by natural injection until further notice.

[Ruinel]

Originally posted by Sminty_Smeagol
heh, then you really WOULDNT need guys! But see, women are still neccessary either way. I WIN!

*sits down next to Sminty and looks motherly*
Sweet Sminty... *shakes head*... boys have their worth... don't dismiss them as unnecessary.... there are fun things you can do with them... fun things that you can't do with girls.... Besides, its fun to tease them and drive them insane... you know, when your bored and there's nothing else to do.