Re: Differences
Kathryn Aegis (aegis@igc.apc.org)
Fri, 20 Nov 1998 15:51:38 -0800 (PST)
Phil Goetz found an error in my earlier posting, and I would like to correct it:
I wrote:
>> The baby would
>> carry nuclear genes from the infertile woman and mitochondrial genes from
>> the donor woman.
Phil wrote:
>Wait a minute... you said the nucleus from the healthy egg is transferred
>to the infertile egg. So isn't this the other way around: nuclear genes
>from the donor, mitochondrial genes from the infertile woman?
>Which makes it not particularly useful.
You are correct on the first point, Phil, the nucleus is transferred from
the infertile egg into the fertile egg, meaning that the cytoplasm of the
healthy egg surrounds the infertile nucleus and revitalizes it. (I've got
to stop typing posts when I'm tired, it leads to dyslexic errors like this
one.) Ethical objections to this procedure center on the issue of how much
mitochondrial DNA gets transferred and possibly mutates, leading to birth
defects.
Thank you for catching that!
Kathryn Aegis