Gavina spotted

[CodeGuy]

A guest comic on El Goonish Shive today had Gav in it. Kinda.

[Gav]

Kewl!

Hmm. Gavina? Gavette? What's the best gynification of Gav's name?

[sun tzu]

Kewl!

Hmm. Gavina? Gavette? What's the best gynification of Gav's name?

Gavisconnie?

[CodeGuy]

I like Gavette.

Of course, Gaviscon is his name, but G.A.V. is his initials. Along that lines, maybe it's like Shazam, where each letter stood for a certain thing for Captain Marvel, but they stood for different things for his sister Mary Marvel.

So her name would still be Gav, but instead of standing for Greed, Avarice, and V(we never settled on anything), she'd instead be Gav for Glory, Ardour, and Vanity?

Yeah, I like Gavette.

[Silver Adept]

Gav gynated... hrm. Gavelle, perhaps?

[Drow Bunny]

I think "Gavina" works pretty well, actually.

[bloodeye]

Okay, warning, idea my brain came up with, and is too twisted to keep there. So going to share this idea with you so that I don't have to deal with it any more. Don't say you weren't warned.

If you are a male, save a sample of your own sperm, somehow turn into a female version of yourself, and then use the saved sperm to impregnate yourself, is the resulting child considered a clone?

Yeah, I did warn ya.

[sun tzu]

Okay, warning, idea my brain came up with, and is too twisted to keep there. So going to share this idea with you so that I don't have to deal with it any more. Don't say you weren't warned.

If you are a male, save a sample of your own sperm, somehow turn into a female version of yourself, and then use the saved sperm to impregnate yourself, is the resulting child considered a clone?

Yeah, I did warn ya.

In all likelihood, no.
You have 23 pairs of chromosome. Each chromosome has thousands of genes, and each gene will have its equivalent in the other chromosome in the pair - so, one version of the gene might be recessive.
The sperm cell and the Iforgetthename cell will each carry 23 chromosomes, so, one single version of each gene.
Now, let's take gene n

[Conina]

*thinking through sun tzu's explaination*

So, taking a trait I'm familiar with, blood type and using the dominant/recessive argument you were using, if the person had type A blood, with Ao genotype, the gametes would each have chromosome coding for either A or o type blood. So the randomly selected sperm and ovum would have an equal chance of having either an A or an o - and if both were o the resultant offspring would have O type blood, different to the parent although created with only the one person's DNA.

I think I just repeated what you said, but I like to work things through and repeat stuff to make sure I understand properly.

It's an interesting idea to ponder. I mean, would using genetic material from just the one individual result in the same sorts of problems that arise when the DNA donors are closely related (siblings)? If I recall correctly it's the lack of diversity in the genetic material that causes problems with the offspring of closely related parents.

[bloodeye]

*nod* As I understand it, it's the recessive traits comming to the fore that's the problem.
As with your previous example, say instead the gene pairing is Nm, with N standing for 'Normal', and m for 'mutant freak'. By getting both sets of genetic material formt he same family, is an increased chance of both doners having the recessive 'm' gene, and thus a higher chance of the offspring resembeling English nobility.
But note it's not a single gene set that you have to worry about, there's hundreds of genes where a recessive trait might come to the fore and make for a problem. And keep the pairing up for a couple of generations, can have a family line with numerous genetic health problems.

[sun tzu]

*thinking through sun tzu's explaination*

So, taking a trait I'm familiar with, blood type and using the dominant/recessive argument you were using, if the person had type A blood, with Ao genotype, the gametes would each have chromosome coding for either A or o type blood. So the randomly selected sperm and ovum would have an equal chance of having either an A or an o - and if both were o the resultant offspring would have O type blood, different to the parent although created with only the one person's DNA.

I think I just repeated what you said, but I like to work things through and repeat stuff to make sure I understand properly.

Correct.

[Conina]

Cool.


I've been thinking about the original question again though, about whether the offspring would be the clone of the parent. I mean, the genotype and phenotype of the offspring would differ from the parent, but the genetic material would nevertheless be all from the one donor and therefore identical, sort of. I mean, my genetic make-up differs from my parents because I've got DNA from both of them, although my siblings have also and I certainly don't match them, different combinations of genes/alleles and so on. So... would that make the offspring sort of the sibling of the parent?

[if that reads weird it's 'coz I was thinking it through as I wrote it - the end of the paragraph is not what I was initially going to write]

[sun tzu]

Cool.


I've been thinking about the original question again though, about whether the offspring would be the clone of the parent. I mean, the genotype and phenotype of the offspring would differ from the parent, but the genetic material would nevertheless be all from the one donor and therefore identical, sort of. I mean, my genetic make-up differs from my parents because I've got DNA from both of them, although my siblings have also and I certainly don't match them, different combinations of genes/alleles and so on. So... would that make the offspring sort of the sibling of the parent?

[if that reads weird it's 'coz I was thinking it through as I wrote it - the end of the paragraph is not what I was initially going to write]

At this point, it's really just semantics. You share 50% of your DNA with each of your parents, 50% with your children, approximately 50% with siblings...Here, the offspring has a DNA that is, essentially, a subset of the parent's.

[Erzengel]

The sperm cell and the Iforgetthename cell will each carry 23 chromosomes

I believe you mean the Ovum cell.

So... would that make the offspring sort of the sibling of the parent?

I'd say no, as sibling/parent/etc doesn't really have to do with genetics. The word "sibling" means "child of the same parent or parents". It does not means "Shares the same genetic materials of two persons with another person".

[sun tzu]

The sperm cell and the Iforgetthename cell will each carry 23 chromosomes

I believe you mean the Ovum cell.

So... would that make the offspring sort of the sibling of the parent?

I'd say no, as sibling/parent/etc doesn't really have to do with genetics. The word "sibling" means "child of the same parent or parents". It does not means "Shares the same genetic materials of two persons with another person".

Well, since you get 50% of each of your parents' genes, and your sibling will also be getting 50% of each (though not necessarilly the same 50%), you're still going to have, on average, 50% of your sibling's DNA.

[Erzengel]

So? Your siblings have 50% of the same DNA, but so do your parents, and your children. So the words "Parents", "siblings", and "children" all mean roughly the same thing based purely on genetics.

[Conina]

Fair enough.