WTF? Different Clones from Same Mother?

[mofeta]

They specifically reference documented DNA variances in cuttings of plants, not tissue cultures. Either way I'm no scientist, I just remembered reading this article and thought it was relevant to your thread. Hope you find the answer you're lookin' for.

I appreciate your contribution, sorry I didn't make that clear.

The quote they give from the lead author of the actual technical paper is misleading:

'Anyone who has ever taken a cutting from a parent plant and then grown a new plant from this tiny piece is actually harnessing the ability such organisms have to regenerate themselves,' said Professor Nicholas Harberd of Oxford University's Department of Plant Sciences, lead author of the paper. 'But sometimes regenerated plants are not identical, even if they come from the same parent.

Harberd mentions cuttings, but they do not work with cuttings at all in this study, just tissue culture. Here is the full text of the technical paper the Science Daily news story is about.

Our work reveals a cause of that visible variation.'

When you read the actual paper, it show that they have done nothing of the sort for regular stem cuttings. What they have shown is that tissue culture is a mutagenic environment. To his credit he mentions this possibility in the science daily article:

'Where these new mutations actually come from is still a mystery,' said Professor Harberd. 'They may arise during the regeneration process itself ...'

and in the actual paper:

...callus phase growth and/or in vitro regeneration from tissue culture might be inherently mutagenic. This first explanation may be supported by previous observations that somaclonal variant phenotype frequencies increase in proportion to the duration during which cells are maintained in tissue culture....

They should have used plain old cuttings, the results would have been meanigful.

Here is another similar paper, published back in 2000, that also studies somaclonal variation in tissue cultured plants, where they claim it is epigenetic factors that cause it:

Epigenetic aspects of somaclonal variation in plants

The paper talked about in the Science Daily article is basically a response to this older paper, saying "No it's not epigenetic, it's mutations that cause this somaclonal variation in tissue cultured plants".

Thanks again, it does seem on the surface that that paper would be exactly what I was looking for, I shouldn't have dismissed your contribution without explaining why. Sorry.

 

[Cool Moe]

Thanks go to you for taking the time to clarify your point, and I stand corrected. You're tight on your game bro, and that's the best rebuttal I've ever seen. I'm glad I mentioned I'm no scientist!

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

Lets ask some experts on mutations and weed.

 

[Madjag]

Fantastic Graphic

Fantastic Graphic

Lets ask some experts on mutations and weed.
View Image

Zep, that graphic is super nice. Your work?

 

[Hash Zeppelin]

^nope just found it on google

 

[Greeco]

Mosaicism, Somatic Mutation and/or Phenotypic Plasticity can possibly play roles in such a scenario. never seen it myself in cannabis.

Is mosaicism the same as mosaic?- A viral disease of plants, resulting in light and dark areas in the leaves, which often become shriveled and dwarfed. " The Free Dictionary by Farlex"