Duane Hewitt writes:
"There seem to be two possibilities:
1) The early embryo has some telomerase activity which restores the
telomeres. This would mean that adult cells could be rejuvenated in their
telomeres.
2) The cell that the successful clone was derived from had long telomeres
and that was why it was able to be cloned. Some stem cells in adults have
detectable telomerase activity and it is quite possible that the cell that
Dolly arose from was one of these and therefore is a relatively "rare"
occurence."
There is a third possibility!
Telomeres may have nothing to do with cell division in these particular
cells. The telomere hypotheses is not universally true.
Jan(John)
