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Plant Cuttings and Genetics
I notice there are some genetics experts on the forum. A question has gone
unanswered in my mind for a number of years because I didn't know who to ask or where to look for the answer. I've just grown a rhubarb plant from a cutting taken from my fathers plant which is around 50 years old. I know my father took his as a cutting from my grandfather. It may be possible that this too was from a cutting and so on, hence the original "seed" based plant may be a hundred years or more old and long since dead. Can this process of taking cuttings of cuttings carry on indefinitely or will the plant material eventually degrade or grow 'old' and die? I vaguely recall that the aging process in animals is due in part to the ends of chromosomes unravelling and not being copied correctly when cells divide, a bit like analogue copies of copies of video tapes or audio cassettes. And that the original undifferentiated 'stem cell' can only be copied down around 60 generations (ie. copy of copy etc of original) before the genetic material becomes too damaged for a viable cell to be formed by division. I think this was also an issue regarding "Dolly the cloned sheep" - there was speculation that she was born as old as her mother genetically speaking because she wasn't cloned from a stem cell? I am drawing a parallel here between animal cloning and vegetative cuttings - is that valid? So is there a limit to the viability of taking cuttings of cuttings of cuttings etc? Is there any genetic 'age' associated with the plants? -- David .... Email address on website http://www.avisoft.co.uk .... Blog at http://dlts-french-adventures.blogspot.com/ |
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