Homeotic Genes and Body Patterns

[ysabetwordsmith]

That is home-otic, not homo-erotic.  These are genes that control the copy-paste function in organism development, along with different variations of a base concept (e.g. the same program can make a leg or a wing). 

This is very useful for gengineering.  One of the first things people usually think of is putting extra drumsticks on chickens.  That actually can work.  You have to hack out the calculations, though, and those are a pain in the ass.  A body part has to justify its existence.  A gengineer makes that choice -- but then you have to backtrack and figure out how much support it needs in terms of extra fuel, extra waste disposal, etc. and ensure the body has that.

Comments

[cmcmck]

I could all too easily see how one could misread that! :o)

[see_also_friend]

>>One of the first things people usually think of is putting extra drumsticks on chickens.<<

Easiest way I think would be to gengineer-replace the wings with an extra set of legs. Would probably make for unhappy unflying chickens, though. And then there are the ethical conversations around making critters that can't act like critters*...

(*Think Munchkin cats, having a hard time running and pouncing because of the short legs.)

Of course, one can also do the trick of buying extra drumsticks and dolling the bird up at the table.

[helgatwb]

So, the grocery store I used to work for sells six-legged turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Lots of butcher's twine and some metal skewers. It's a special order item.