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Originally Posted by Baraka_Guru
Sorry, The experiment is in bringing a number of lifeforms of invariable genetic traits into being. Sustainable ecosystems are dependent on variability--that is, biodiversity.
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This is only a concern if the clones replace the other individuals of the species. As long as genetic diversity is preserved in a population somewhere, (either other domestic populations, or wild populations from which the domestic strain evolved) that diversity can be tapped to maintain the health of a cloned population. Even if the cloned population can't be saved, it's only a concern if the clones constitute the whole of the species. It doesn't seem likely that cloning will become universally practised for any domesticated species in the forseeable future. Also, it's not only cloning that results in the loss of genetic diversity; selective breeding has been doing this for hundreds of years. Diversity loss is not a cloning issue, it's a husbandry issue, and cloning is simply another tool with the potential to be used to our benefit or our detriment.
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If you were to mismanage a cloning operation, you could essentially throw a beneficial genetic course off its path.
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The same is true of mismanaging a breeding operation.