Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc (KBLB)

[jazz710]

Any genes that have a significant impact on silk characters should have very little variation in the platform strain to attain consistent product.

Whether through clones, inbreeding, or very small starting population which is monitored during ramp up doesn't really matter. The platform strain, I would have thought, would have been VERY close to fully inbred. It apparently was not, or at least some genetic material was introduced during ramp up (intentionally or unintentionally).

The latest PR simply suggests that during ramp up, they underestimated the effect of shortcutting that variation minimization process. They can now measure the effects with their new do-dads, and maybe they'll be more careful with their starting populations.

Hope it all works out.

EDIT:
This was over 13 years ago.

http://www.nature.com/news/2004/041101/full/news041101-1.html