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Meredith Frey

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Is it possible to cross DNA with animals?

If you take out parts of a persons DNA, then replace the missing DNA with a animals DNA, should it make a creature of some sort? Like if you cross human DNA with a wolf's, you should get a Jack Nickolson. or a werewolf. what about genes? Are gene pairs the same in all creatures? A-T, T-A, G-C, ect...

Topics: Cryptids DNA
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    Petr Frish 100+

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    TED Translator
    Jun 20 2011: Combinations of DNA from distant species would not be viable -- they will not grow into a living specimen.

    That is apparent from the fact fertilized eggs coming from parents belonging to distant species are not viable --
    so you cannot get a werewolf. If the species are close, for example donkey and horse, you get an usually infertile hybrid, in this case a mule: http://www.lovelongears.com/about_mules.htm
    Result would be similar if DNA is combined by laboratory technique. Those experiments were done, and when human DNA is used, carried just to small number of cells (like 32).
    Cardinal Keith O'Brien denounced what he called experiments of "Frankenstein proportion". http://goo.gl/13yOz

  • Lorenzo Sewanan

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    Jun 19 2011: Since DNA, the chemical material of genes, is identical in all creatures; it is more than possible to insert a non-human gene into a human genome (i.e. human genetic material). However,the functioning of genes to produce an actual visible result is too complicated; it would take more than simply splicing in a particular set of genes into a human genome. However, this is a kind of technical challenge.
    Hybrid creatures would need to be spliced in fetal form though as a total organism is too difficult to change genetic material of when developed, as humans for example contains trillions of cells.
    In another note, this kind of thing has been done in animals but never humans as this would be very unethical. Look up glow in the dark cats or fish, which have bacterial genes added to their genomes.
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