Question 6

[matthew]

Dear Dr. Ferdinand,

When I saw the word egg I thought diploid and from the passage somatic (46 rang a bell). And the fact that nucleus was not removed I can't see a 23 adding to it. From the question it is hard to say if the male gamete is in the egg cell or not. If so than okay, but I am hoping this is one of the test questions!

[admin]

This is definitely a legitimate question.

Somatic cells are 2N and gametes are 1N. The passage describes cloning as taking the nucleus from a 2N cell and putting it in a gamete (which means 1N; note, they are not saying 2 gametes or a sperm and an egg; they are simply putting a 2N nucleus in a 1N cell).

So, if you don't remove the 1 N nucleus, then you end up with 3N. But of course, the intention of cloning, as described in the passage, is to remove the 1N nucleus so that the 2N somatic nucleus grows up in that egg environment to make a new individual.

[admin]

bump