I'm a molecular biologist, not a geneticist, but I have a fair bit of genetics background by now. > From: David Silberstein [mailto:davids at kithrup.com] > On 4 Sep 2002, David Dyer-Bennet wrote: > > >David Silberstein <davids at kithrup.com> writes: > > > >> My notion - which I admit might be wrong, but isn't > contradicted by > >> anything we've seen so far - is that the animal genes that > Dragaerans > >> have are not active DNA, but are rather markers that the > Jenoine used > >> for tracking purposes. So for all practical purposes, all > Dragaerans > >> are the same species, and can produce fertile offspring. I don't see the point of inserting animal genes solely as markers. When we insert other species' genes into a mouse, the gene you are interested in is nested in a long plasmid of DNA which also contains some markers, or really they are genes which code for products which allow some cells to be screened out, to select for the cells which did get the gene you want in there. I suspect, however, that the phenotypic differences between the Houses are the result of inbreeding. There is not much call for genetic experiments that change eye color, or give a certain shape to the eyebrows. Once you get your gene into a few mice, and it takes a lot of work to get that far, you keep breeding just those mice to keep that gene going, rather than insert it into fresh mice. As a result the mice get pretty inbred. Any perceived resemblence to the animal they are named after is very likely fanciful. > > > >Except for a few exceptions (Jhereg, and I think Yendi) people can > >routinely identify somebodies house from their face. The coding for > >that has to be *somewhere*; probably in their DNA. > coded in the DNA. :-) > > But my contention is simply that it isn't the animal DNA that > is coding that. So, I agree that the animal DNA is not coding for their facial features. > Exactly. To restate my thesis: Each of the Dragaeran Houses > has certain genetic traits for certain physical (and possibly > mental) characteristics; but in addition, they have > unexpressed animal DNA sequences for tracking purposes > (population dispersion & genetic drift, etc). > > Is there a geneticist on the list who might comment on the > feasibility of the notion? I'd modify this hypothesis: Each House (with the exception of Jhereg & Teckla) has characteristics as a result of inbreeding; but in addition, they have animal DNA sequences which gave them other traits. It's been a while since I read that part but it seems to me Aliera thought they were experimenting with mental powers, or was that just the jhereg? Rachel