Fingerprints

[Ceritus]

A friend and I are having a rather arbitrary arguement about whether clones would have identical fingerprints to the original person? I know twins do not so why would clones? So I decided what you all would have to say about it simply because these forums are amazing and have pretty much answered every question I threw out there that I had.

 

[Darat]

A friend and I are having a rather arbitrary arguement about whether clones would have identical fingerprints to the original person? I know twins do not so why would clones?

I suspect that a clone would have fingerprints similar but not very similar to the originator for the same reasons that identical twins tend to have very similar fingerprints.

(Edited to add.)

Here's a “The StraightDope” article about it: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a980821.html

 

[CBL4]

If you extend Darat's thinking, clones are a lot less mysterious than the media makes them.

Identical twins are clones with a more similar environment than the hypothetical, "normal" clones. If you ever have a question about clones, do research on identical twins. They are simply "natural" clones.

CBL

 

[Dymanic]

Originally posted by Darat
Here's a The StraightDope article about it:

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a980821.html

Cecil uses an apt metaphor here:

"much of our physical makeup seems to be improvised [ ] not by some master jazz musician, but by a collection of stupid molecules."

Think of the DNA as a musical score which acts as guideline, and the cells as individual musicians. Never mind jazz, the same piece played by two different classical orchestras -- though comprised of the same instruments -- may have quite different sounds, and even the very same musicians may, through slight differences in timing or emphasis, interpret the same piece differently on separate occasions. If we measured those nuances closely enough, we would find that the same piece is never played exactly the same way twice.

There is a reciprocal relationship between the DNA and the individual cell in which it resides. The chemical state of the cell plays an important role in gene expression, one which might be considered analogous to the subtle differences in timing or emphasis -- improvisation -- in the orchestra metaphor above. This is especially true during embryonic development, when individual cells are 'deciding' what kind of cells to be.

Sufficiently close examination of any structure two organisms have in common would reveal that the corresponding individual cells are never in exactly the same arrangements -- not even in clones. Fingerprints are just a particularly convenient place to make that comparison.

 

[Ceritus]

thanks for all the info.