X-Message-Number: 13343 Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2000 04:20:43 -0500 From: Paul Wakfer <> Subject: Re: CryoNet #13328 - #13337 References: <> > Message #13331 > From: > Date: Tue, 29 Feb 2000 11:39:13 EST > Subject: information recovery [Snip] > As just one example, suppose you wanted to know the genome of someone who has > been burned to a crisp in a fire. I don't think Mr. Leitl or anyone else > would call that impossible. All you need do (not easy, just relatively easy > at some future time) is to collect DNA samples from as many living relatives > as possible. Knowing the relationships, one could then infer, to a high > degree of accuracy, the genome of the crisp. As far as I understand genetics, this is incorrect. The genes of each parent are "shuffled" by the crossing over of genes between chromosomes which occurs during meiosis before the single set of chromosomes of each parent are joined to create the genome of the offspring. Thus, the number of possible offspring genomes is exceedingly large. I can't see any possible method to infer the genomal structure of an offspring even if one had a copy of the genome of every relative who ever lived before the demise of the offspring and will ever live in the future. Paul Wakfer Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=13343