Question

A Three Parent Baby ?!?!?!

Answer 1

Is it due to genetic mutation?

Answer 2

@dan815

Answer 3

this is not possible, reason: two gametes must fuse. A chemical reaction happens when a male gamete (sperm) enters an egg (female gamete) that kills off all other sperm cells

Answer 4

well , at leasst not naturally, the only way would be by genetic engineering, i.e. combine DNA from two fathers and one mother

Answer 5

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/threeparent-babies-explained-in-six-questions-how-does-it-work-and-who-objects-10020636.html

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/feb/02/three-parent-babies-explained

And few more sites show it's possible via "mitochondrial transfer"

Answer 6

When a male and female mate, 23 pairs of chromosomes are passed on (22 autosomes and 2 sex chromosomes).

These "pairs" consist of one set of 23 chromosomes from the father, and one set of 23 chromosomes from the mother. I find the news articles you linked to, to be very misleading, since this genetic DNA is still all that is being transferred to the "three parent baby" (a very misleading term in my opinion).

What's it's referring to is something similar (but not identical) to the maternal effect. This is where your mitochondria (the energy producing part of a cell, which contains its own unique genome) is inherited not via one of the 23 chromosomes, but directly from cells of your mother. These cells later go on to divide, the mitochondria with them, and it is therefore the DNA in your mothers mitochondria that is passed down, instead of your fathers.

Now, some mothers have mutations in their mitochondria DNA. Therefore, even if the father has healthy mitochondria, the child won't receive any of these healthy mitochondria since unlike conventional genetics with DNA located in the nucleus, DNA in the mitochondria only comes from the mother (as explained above).

This (again very misleading term "three parent baby") simply means that they are replacing the mitochondria which would normally come from one mother, with mitochondria from another mother. That's all. The two pairs of 23 chromosomes are still coming from each respective parent (and once again, there are only two pairs).

A real "three parent baby" would have 3 sets of 23 chromosomes (69 chromosomes total). This isn't what the article is talking about.

As a general rule, never believe anything you read in a newspaper. It's highly sensationalized and more often than not entirely incorrect, especially ths misleading titles. In fact, if you believe the complete opposite of whatever you read in a newspaper, it would be a step in the right direction.

Answer 7

I see,
You helped me a lot in my research
Thanks.

Answer 8

http://www.newcastle-mitochondria.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Mitochondrial-Donation-Q-and-A.pdf

Is this article misleading as well?

Answer 9

That article looks fine. Also note it's not a newspaper fortunately.

Answer 10

So,That article is somewhat valid?

Answer 11

yep

Answer 12

Can you give me more information on this topic?