Embryo with two mothers approved

[Siena]

UK scientists have won permission to create a human embryo that will have genetic material from two mothers.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4225564.stm

[soothsayer]

1. yay! I thought this up in high school. So glad someone else

came up with the means, so I didn't have to go into genetics....

[Skidmore]

2. That will be a real girlie-girl when she come into the world.

[thedailyshow]

3. the Amazon race is born!

[Gruenemann]

4. Heather really WILL have two Mommies! eom

[jim3775]

5. Seriously: This is good news, this will cure a whole host of...

mitochondrial diseases. Please read the whole article before you jump to any conclusions.

Edit: This is not a way for only two women to have a baby. This is about preventing genetic diseases.

[gollygee]

6. Whose head will explode first?

Phelps?

[hallc]

7. but how?

I dont understand how they can do this - A viable embryo needs both maternal and paternal dna - its all about genetic imprinting - certain genes are turned on in mothers and off in fathers (see prader wili syndrome and angelmans syndrome) - Unless they are usign some male DNA, i dont see how this is going to work.

[Ilsa]

8. Thank you!

You just expanded my horizons quite a bit:

"In 1981, the Prader-Willi syndrome was found to be associated with a very small deletion in the long arm of human chromosome 15, between bands q11 and q13 (Ledbetter et al., 1981). However, in 1987, an identical deletion was reported in a number of patients who suffered from a very different disease, Angelman syndrome. These syndromes give quite distinct phenotypes (Figure 1). Prader-Willi syndrome is characterized by developmental delay, cryptorchidism (small or undescended testes), hyperphagia obesity (fatness due to overeating in an attempt to reach satiety), short stature, and mild retardation. Angelman syndrome is characterized by seizures, severe mental retardation, inappropriate laughter, and a characteristic face that is small with a large mouth and prominent chin.

The resolution to the paradox of two different syndromes caused by the same chromosomal deletion came in 1989 when it was discovered the Prader-Willi syndrome was always caused by defects involving the paternally derived chromosome, while Angelman syndrome was always caused by deletions in the maternally derived chromosome (Knoll et al., 1989). "

I found this online at http://zygote.swarthmore.edu/chrom3a.html