jangel correctly points out that apples and roses have been grown from clones of clones of clones for hundreds of years
toke re-iterates that clones must of necessity be genitically identical to the mother
MJ is an annual not a perannial like roses or apples...and so there may be some differences.
when cells grow and divide in any living creature they tend to make an excact copy with the exact same genetic info...but things like the accumulation of free radicals (yucky stuff that is in the enviroment and self created) and UV sunlight can make that copying mechanism fail...as creature reach the end of their natural life span...the ability to compensate for and repair genetic damage decreases...that may even be the cause of aging...so because MJ is naturally a short lived plant (unlike roses) loss of vigor via genetics will happen eventually but not so much in five year...I don't think anyone has documented a clonal only line that is say 15+ years but if they did I would be surprised and while the genes for potency may not have degraded much...other things like disease resistance probably will in such a time span
can you tell I enjoyed my class in genetics? |