Would it be possible...

[ant80]

It would theoretically be very simple to remove the DNA of one woman's and insert into the shell of a sperm cell. Then this cell would be allowed to fuse with a regular ovum of another woman. So lesbians would be able to have children of their own.

But it becomes more diffucult when there are two men involved... Of course, we need a surrogate mother, but to replace the DNA from the ovum with the DNA from the sperm, and fuse the ovum with another man's sperm would seem to be more difficult... Especially in the light of the fact that removing the DNA from the ovum without disturbing the structural integrity and orientation of the ovum... Anybody have any input on this?

 

[Falloutboy]

in the near futur the closest I see getting is a clone. now proubly in the future (20-50 years) it proubly will be possible

 

[jagec]

Considering that there are so many children in need of adoption, it just seems like a waste of money to me.

Then again, I don't plan on having children of my own soo...

 

[Titan]

recently, a discussion on the news was about men going extinct in a few hundered million years as the Y chromosone deteriorates. How would women propogate the species? Well they could take the egg from one woman and use it to fertilize an existing egg already inside another woman and only produce a woman. They have done it with mice and created a perfectly healthy female mouse that breeded with a male mouse.

Personally, I want to see this technology work in my lifetime. I wonder what would happen if I could take the two hottest women I could find... well, you get the idea. Super babes? I wanna know!

 

[wacki]

Believe it or not, creating a female zygote from two eggs is probably alot simpler that you would think. At least in theory. We already can do this with many organisms. And in a related way, do this with bacteria, protists, and even some eukaryotes on a regular basis in research labs across the world. Heck, I even did it as a sophmore at in college. Although no one has done it with Humans, I doubt that any real difficult technical challenges would arise. The biggest challenge would be getting past the ethics, hardcore religious zealots, the politicians, and anyone that got scared watching GATACCA. Believe it or not, I'm in the GATACCA group, but the "Super Babe" has me thinking real hard.

 

[Falloutboy]

Originally posted by: wacki
Believe it or not, creating a female zygote from two eggs is probably alot simpler that you would think. At least in theory. We already can do this with many organisms. And in a related way, do this with bacteria, protists, and even some eukaryotes on a regular basis in research labs across the world. Heck, I even did it as a sophmore at in college. Although no one has done it with Humans, I doubt that any real difficult technical challenges would arise. The biggest challenge would be getting past the ethics, hardcore religious zealots, the politicians, and anyone that got scared watching GATACCA. Believe it or not, I'm in the GATACCA group, but the "Super Babe" has me thinking real hard.

ooooo "Super Babe" but wouldn't breading super hot women just be breeding more bitchyness into them?

 

[wacki]

Originally posted by: Falloutboy525

ooooo "Super Babe" but wouldn't breading super hot women just be breeding more bitchyness into them?

If all women were super hot, then the super hot women would realize that they were no longer rare. And men wouldn't put up with their bitchyness just because they were hot, instead they would move onto the next super hot woman that actually was smart enough to realize her super hot looks no longer made her special.


Haha, late night at the MBL, getting silly off of Rolling Rock, and posting nonsense on Anandtech.

 

[alexXx]

what happens when you get a YY offspring? If this technology ever existed, it would be in no less than 75years.

 

[dakels]

tell me more about these "Super Babes"
-thanks

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

A cult claimed to have succesfully merged two eggcells from two different women and that a healthy baby was born. They refused to show the women or the baby though, so it was probably a hoax.

 

[Gurck]

Well, this is looking like an OT post, but... the bitchiness is a product of nurture imo. And if that cult did what they claimed, I'm G. W. Bush.

 

[wacki]

Originally posted by: alexXx
what happens when you get a YY offspring? If this technology ever existed, it would be in no less than 75years.

YY is a lethal combo, it has to be (without doing some major rewriting of our genome) XY, or XX to have a normal healthy person.

XXY and XYY are also possible, but those conditions can cause severe problems.

 

[wacki]

Originally posted by: Skyclad1uhm1
A cult claimed to have succesfully merged two eggcells from two different women and that a healthy baby was born. They refused to show the women or the baby though, so it was probably a hoax.

If they actually did do this, all they would need to do is supply a hair as proof. No proof has been shown up. But considering advanced state of current biotechnology, and the commonly enforced ethics blocking the research in this specific field, I wouldn't be suprised if the first human clone / or GATACCA style human shows up this way. Then it's only a matter of time before people get scared that they will be left behind. Ugh, I don't like thinking about that kind of stuff.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: Gurck
Well, this is looking like an OT post, but... the bitchiness is a product of nurture imo. And if that cult did what they claimed, I'm G. W. Bush.

Hey Bush, I'll send you some cocaine if you pull us out of Iraq

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: jagec
Considering that there are so many children in need of adoption, it just seems like a waste of money to me.

Then again, I don't plan on having children of my own soo...

Yeah, isn't it great? At a time when the human population is exploding already, we're coming up with artifical ways of making even more people.

 

[ant80]

what happens when you get a YY offspring? If this technology ever existed, it would be in no less than 75years.

YY cannot exist. Therefore gays would need to at least attempt to ward off the one possiblity. That should be simple because one man's sperm should be screened and any with the Y chromosome should be discarded. But the problem would be, after isolation of the chromosomes, we need to remove the DNA from a woman's ovum and insert the man's dna into it. Since the structural and spacial localization of the enzymes is "mission critical", they cannot be touched. The problem is whether we can insert the DNA without affecting them. That is the step that I dont know if it can be performed.

Yeah, isn't it great? At a time when the human population is exploding already, we're coming up with artifical ways of making even more people.

I sincerely dont think it is a problem. World population has come down from an increasing growth to a decreasing growth in the 1970's. World population is expected to stabilize in 2050 at around 15 billion. By 2100, we will be living in the moon and the mars and we won't have enough people for everything.

Also as countries develop, it seems that the growth rate comes down to negative levels. What will happen if the entire world has a negative growth rate once we reach the same level of developement? I will go far enough to say that though on the short term this huge population might be detrimental, humanity will suffer from a small and declining population in the long term. Thats when acute efforts to contain the population now will be felt severely. Of course, none of us will be alive by the time the realization comes. Just my 2c.

 

[Mark R]

Would there not be a problem with 'imprinted' genes? I.e. genes where only the copy inherited from a particular parent is active. There are several genetic illnesses which are inherited on a chromosone inhertied only from the father/mother. (E.g. Prader-Willi syndrome).

 

[ant80]

Would there not be a problem with 'imprinted' genes? I.e. genes where only the copy inherited from a particular parent is active. There are several genetic illnesses which are inherited on a chromosone inhertied only from the father/mother. (E.g. Prader-Willi syndrome).

Actually, yes. I didn't think of that at all. I am not sure what causes the Prader-Willi syndrome.

For zygotes with female/female DNA:
- Suppose the genes are tagged when the DNA is passing through the cytoplasm of the ovum, that can be managed in virto.
- If the genes are tagged when in the sperm, that can be taken care of in virto as well.
- If the genes are tagged based on localization of a particular (maternal of patenral) chromosome in the ovum, that would resolve itself in the way the experiment is designed.

So the question would be, is there any way that the tagging cannot be made artificially. At first glance, it seems that for female/female DNA it would be reasonably simple.

For zygotes with male/male DNA:
- In the process of removing the native DNA from the ovum, the orientation of the DNA would be lost. The DNA that is artificially injected would be of random conformation. Does this matter when meiosis is already complete? It may, it may not.
- When the native DNA is removed, the native tagging of the genes are destroyed. This is probably critical unless we are able to resolve exactly what happens to the native DNA. Therefore, when the new DNA from the sperm is inserted, it loses the tagging.

It seems that it is impossible for two guys to continue the species. Conspiracy theorists are welcome to speculate further.

Does anyone see any solution beyond this problem?

 

[DrPizza]

I'm far from a geneticist... so I'm just going to toss out this, and let the rest of you add it to the debate if it's necessary:

Mitochondrial DNA

If you implant the male's DNA into an egg, replacing the female's DNA, what about the mitochondrial DNA in the egg?

 

[ant80]

Mitochondrial DNA is the same for both males and females.

The major difference between males and females is the existence of one gene in the Y chromosome called TDF (testes determining factor). Since mitochondrial DNA is not involved in that, it wouldn't matter.

Also, even in normal fusion, the sperm only supplies the DNA. Everything else (including the mitochondrial DNA) comes from the mother (ovum). Valid question though. But in the end, it wouldn't matter.

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
I'm far from a geneticist... so I'm just going to toss out this, and let the rest of you add it to the debate if it's necessary:

Mitochondrial DNA

If you implant the male's DNA into an egg, replacing the female's DNA, what about the mitochondrial DNA in the egg?

The mitochondrial DNA will be that from the surrogate mother, yes. However, mitochondrial DNA doesn't factor into your genetic expression, so...

 

[biostud]

In Japan they recently created a mouse with genes from two female mice, so it can be done.

 

[Mark R]

However, mitochondrial DNA doesn't factor into your genetic expression, so...

There are a number of genetic diseases which are based in Mitochondrial DNA. It certianly does have an effect on the expressed phenotype....

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: jagec

Originally posted by: DrPizza
I'm far from a geneticist... so I'm just going to toss out this, and let the rest of you add it to the debate if it's necessary:

Mitochondrial DNA

If you implant the male's DNA into an egg, replacing the female's DNA, what about the mitochondrial DNA in the egg?

The mitochondrial DNA will be that from the surrogate mother, yes. However, mitochondrial DNA doesn't factor into your genetic expression, so...

That was kinda the point I meant to raise... technically, while producing an offspring, it still took genetic material from 3 people rather than just 2 gay males to produce it. (Or could you remove all the mitochondrial DNA? Or, somehow replace it?)

 

[zephyrprime]

I should be doable but the thing is, lesbians would only be able to have female chidren while gay men could have either male or female children.