At 09:59 PM 8/9/01 -0700, Robert wrote:
>> As I understand it, the telomeres are reset during nuclear transfer.
>> Dolly's were 20% shorter than you'd expect in a beast of her age at the
time,
>This statement doesn't make any sense to me. If telomeres are "reset", then
>you would expect them to be the same length as an average newborn.
Aargh. Insert `Granted,' before the word `Dolly'.
>Perhaps Harvey wrote:
No, that was still me quoting the news report at the cited url.
>> The cells of cloned mice show no signs of premature aging despite being
>> copied through six generations, according to a new study. In fact, some of
>> the cells showed signs of getting younger.
>PLEASE, do not compare mechanisms of aging in mice with mechanisms
>of aging in sheep with mechanisms of aging in humans. Mice have *much*
>longer telomeres than humans do.
Of course they do. The guys who did the experiment knew that. I assume,
therefore, they were saying something other than the obvious. For example,
if they'd published a paper in NATURE pointing out that mice was smaller
than elephants, I doubt that anyone would have been found that noteworthy.
(Well, actually, now that I...)
Here's some more of the report:
>Researchers said the
> telomeres of some mice were longer
> than expected, even in mice that lived
> for more than one year.
> `Our results verify that telomere
> shortening is not a necessary outcome
> of the cloning process,' said the
> study's lead researcher, Teruhiko
> Wakayama.
> Wakayama said he could not
> explain why the cloned mice had long
> telomeres.
Damien Broderick
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