Pamelathon!

[No-Pro-mwa]

I sure do wish these were at my house. Do they smell good?

[Paul]

Originally Posted by Paphluvr

Shouldn't a mericlone, by definition, be identical to the original? Educate me, Ray.

Ideally a mericlone should indeed be an exact copy of the original.

However, during the course of living, multicellular organisms are constantly producing new cells to replace old worn out/damaged cells and increasing the number of their cells which contributes to the growth/size increase of the organism. (Organisms grow, not by having cells grow larger but rather by adding to the total number of cells which make up their body.) These new cells arise from cell division (mitosis). During this process, the cell's chromosomes (helical double strands of DNA) are "unzipped" into single strands of DNA, strands separated to opposite poles of the cell, replicated, "rezipped", new nuclei formed and then the cell divides in two -- each with a nucleus that should, ideally, be an exact copy of the original.

In the real world that does not always happen smoothly. Sooner or later, errors occur during this process. This may be due to such things as incorrect replication of the DNA -- changes in the genes being copied or genes being added or deleted by mistake -- or incorrect sorting of the DNA strands, for instance. Such errors are often referred to as "mutations". Then, too, DNA often accrues damage over the course of an organism's lifespan due to such things as exposure to UV or other forms of radiation, or from chemicals/compounds in the environment. Under such circumstances, even if this damaged DNA is copied perfectly, it will still be a copy of damaged DNA. (Human aging/getting old is believed to be a result of an accumulation of such DNA defects.) The inevitability of such events occurring becomes more apparent when one considers how frequently cell division occurs in an organism. For example, in humans, it is estimated that the average adult human body is comprised of almost 100 000 000 000 000 cells, and, as a whole, undergoes as many as 10 000 000 000 000 000 cell divisions in a lifetime. During the mericloning process which is based on getting cells to divide over and over -- particularly if it is a plant that has been cloned time and time again, as Ray alluded to -- defects may accumulate. This is even more likely if one, as Ray mentioned, takes the tissue to be cloned from a plant that is already the product of cloniing. If the defects are relatively minor, one may see only small differences between the plant resulting from mericloning and the original plant.

[Bayard]

Thanks for your comments!
Arron - the ripe bananas may shorten the lifespan of the flowers, but I’m ok with that.
Shannon - they are fragrant, but not overpowering.