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Honor Bio-You Are Not The Mother of Your Children
Honor Bio-You Are Not The Mother of Your Children
1. Why must a mother’s DNA match that of her biological children? Why would Damian
expect half of the children’s DNA to come from their mother? Why not 30% of it? Or 70% of
the DNA?
This problem is related to meiosis. First of all, the definition of the term biological
children is ‘any child conceived rather than adopted by a specified parent, and therefore
carrying genes from the parent.’ Zygote, which is the seed of offspring, is created by
unification of a sperm from father and an egg from mother. Since sperm and egg has 23
chromosomes in its nucleus as a result of meiosis, human being is able to maintain our own
number of chromosomes, which is 46. And because the sperm and egg has same number of
chromosomes, they contains same amount of DNA, and that’s the reason why the half of
children’s DNA has to come from their mother, and the other half is from father.
2. What is the process by which DNA is transmitted to offspring? How does only half of the
Going through meiosis, process takes place in the tests or ovaries, normal body cells
divide, creating 2 exact copies of each other, however when a sex cell divides it creates 4
cells each of them having half the amount of DNA. Therefore when the sperm meets the egg,
3. The welfare people asked Lillian a number of questions about where she got the children
from. From their questions, it is clear they had formed several hypotheses as to why Lillian’s
hypotheses put forward as to how the children had DNA that did not match with Lillian’s
DNA.
1. A mother’s DNA must match with half of her biological children’s DNA, so these
2. Those children would be grandchild of Lillian since 25% of DNA are matching.
3. Lillian might confuse between her real child and the child she surrogated.
b. For each hypothesis, how much of the DNA would you expect the children to share with
Lillian? For instance, how much genetic material should an aunt expect to share with her
Lillian and her children must share half since Lillian is claiming they are her real
children. And if they are Lillian’s grandchildren, they have to share quarter. And if they are
being surrogated when they were developed in womb, sharing percentage of DNA might very
small. Mother shares 50% of her DNA with her sister since siblings always share
approximately 50% of their genetic material. This means that we share about 25% of your
I think she was surrogating her sister’s babies. But I don’t think she adopted them, it
about it, we have got to use the other hypothesis. In order to prove second hypothesis, we
need to find the person whose DNA is matching 50% with Lillian. Third one might be tough
to prove, because we need to find real mother and father to prove it. Fourth one is easy
4. Do you think Lillian is telling the truth? Why or why not? Does the evidence support her
claim?
I don’t think so. I think she did surrogacy in order to maintain her house and gain
money.
1. What is a chimera?
populations of genetically distinct cells that originated from different zygotes involved in
sexual reproduction. If the different cells have emerged from the same zygote, the organism is
called a mosaic. Chimeras are formed from at least four parent cells. Each population of cells
keeps its own character and the resulting organism is a mixture of tissues. Chimeras are
2. What are fraternal twins, and how do they normally occur? How much of their DNA would
Fraternal twins occur when a woman produces two egg cells at the same time and
both get fertilized. Fraternal twins come from two different egg cells, while identical twins
come from a single egg cell. Identical twins share 100% of their DNA. Fraternal twins can
share as little as 1% to 99%. They share the same amount of DNA as non-twin siblings,
which is 50%.
3. Why does Dr. Vijayvergia think the mother (Lillian) can be a chimera and not appear
abnormal?
offspring. But Lillian is keep arguing they both are her kids. So only possible reason is exist
4. How could Dr. Vijayvergia’s hypothesis be tested? What could you do to find out if Lillian
was a chimera?
If you are a chimera whose blood is made up of cells from both twins, then a DNA test on
just your blood would reveal that fact. But if you are a chimera whose blood comes from just
one twin, a DNA test on your blood wouldn't be enough. You’d need to test other tissues too.
If you had skin cells from one twin and blood cells from another, then your chimerism might
be detected if you tested both types of cells. But if you had skin and blood from one twin and
internal organs from another, a DNA test would still miss it. So if a DNA test comes back that
you are not a chimera, you still might be one. You just didn't test the right tissues. A DNA test
might find out one person is a chimera and misses this fact with a second person.
1. Using your knowledge of the normal process of gametogenesis and fertilization, formulate
twins. Let’s suppose a woman has identical twins in her womb and one of the babies has died
during the early stage of pregnancy. The dead baby’s DNA could move to another baby who
is still alive.
2. In addition to paternity testing, DNA testing is now used legally in many civil and criminal
cases. In what kinds of cases other than parentage could the presence of chimerism cause
problems? Propose a situation in which DNA testing of a chimeric individual might lead to an
Let’s say the series murder has been going on. Police has figured out every murder
have done by same one person, but the DNA informations found in crime scene were
different beside victims. We can assume the murderer is chimera, but chimera is very rare and
3. Does this case raise any other questions for you? The questions do not have to be
I am just curious about the formation of chimera. How come the dead one-identical
baby’s DNA can be absorbed to the other baby? I can’t figure out how and why. Anyway if
scientist research about chimera, it can be used in good way such as organ transplant but can
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