2010 National DNA Day Online Chatroom Transcript
This is just one question from an archive of the National DNA Day Moderated Chat held in April 2010. The NHGRI Director and many genomics experts from across NHGRI took questions from students, teachers and the general public on topics ranging from basic genomic research, to the genetic basis of disease, to ethical questions about genetic privacy.
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Why is it that interspecies mating doesn't produce offspring?
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Tracy Futch, M.S., Ph.D.:
I am a genetic counselor working at DNA Direct in San Francisco. We provide genetic counseling as well as guidance and decision support for genomic medicine to patients, providers, and payors.
Actually, some interspecies mating does produce offspring. Mating of horses and donkeys can occur in nature and results in a mule, while artificially mating lions and tigers results in a "liger." These offspring may be sterile (unable to produce offspring of their own). In order for interspecies mating to produce any offspring, the two species most be very close in behavior, chromosome number, mechanisms of chemical signaling, and more. |
| Belle HS in MO (11th grade student) |
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