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genetics/cloning

22 15:10:05

Question
This may sound a stupid question, but we have managed to clone a lamb, so what stopping the cloning of a reptile. I realise that reptiles live in hot climates, but could they be cloned and changed genetically allowing them to live in cold climates. I have a friend who owns a python and she was unable to answer this question.

Answer
Steve,

I am definitely not an expert on cloning, but from what I do know about it, I would have to say that cloning a reptile can probably be done.  As with cats, lambs, and other things that have been cloned, reptiles have distinctive genetic codes.  As far as why it hasn't been done, I would probably say that because it is so expensive and time-consuming to clone an animal, reptiles, because they are not a food source (for us anyway) or because we don't typically think of them as members of our families, would be useless to clone.
    As for genetically creating a reptile that can survive in a cold climate, I don't necessarily believe that this can be done.  If you look at the course of evolution, it has taken millions of years for the first organisms that evolved from reptiles (birds) to develop the ability to live in cooler climates and regulate an internal body temperature (birds, like us, are endothermic).  To suddenly alter an organism's genetic code to provide for a total replacement of ectothermy, along with all of the physiological, morphological, and behavioral changes that would have to take place, would be unheard of.  To do this, a researcher would essentially be creating a totally new type of lifeform from an old one.  The basis of genetics and cloning relies on the fact that it is so structured and can be layed out perfectly.  Cloning is about copying an animal exactly, or at the most, creating very small changes to the new animal.  I would say that (at least at this point in our knowledge of genetics) it would be impossible to clone a reptile with endothermic abilities.

Thanks for your question.
Joseph Glenn