Replies to post #253777 on Kraig Biocraft Laboratories Inc (KBLB)

[jealmc79]

“I think you meant "homozygous".”

You are correct about that, I misspoke. Just put a homo everywhere I said hetero. Trying to learn how to 3d print at the same time as posting here doesn’t work very well.

[jealmc79]

Also, I think I finally understand your confusion. You are hung up on the word "hybrid" because in your view, you are attributing that distinction to a single gene. The reality is that Kraig Labs has been editing many genes in each line of silkworms.

Wrong. I use the term hybrid for when two different breeds are mated. They will each have many homozygous and heterozygous genes but to ensure you get a desired gene in the offspring at least one of them must have that dominant homozygous gene. I'm sure that Kraig Labs has probably bred all their purebred spidersilk lines to have dominant homozygous genes for the traits that they desire. If they didn't then they wouldn't know what they would get from one generation to the next. That would also ensure that the gene would get passed along to any other silkworm that it is bred to, may or may not end up being homozygous though. Works the same for all genes. Doesn't matter how many there are. Might also allow you to breed a worm with spidersilk genes to one that doesn't have them and still have offspring that produce spidersilk.

For instance, you could have a line of silkworms thats been stabilized and breeds true (homozygous) for spider silk protein, and cross breed it with a line that breeds true for large cocoons. After a couple generations of selective breeding, you could have a line of silkworms that breeds true (homozygous) for both genes, yet you could still call it a hybrid since it is combining the 2 genes into one line.

No, if you just bred them back to each other that would be a new line not a hybrid anymore. It's also what Kraig Labs was probably using already for production. They will have lost some of the orginal 'hybrid vigor' but will breed true to type. Kind of how Spot hogs came to existence. Now, if you breed that Spot to a Duroc, Landrace, or a Hampshire hog, then you would have a hybrid and get the benefit of some of that hybrid vigor (faster growth, better milkers, larger litters).

the genes that translate to more robustness and a silkworms ability to survive differing temps and humidity

Looks like Kraig is accomplishing this with what they call multiline breeding. That's using different lines of the same breed which show different characteristics of being immune to whatever your problems are and breeding them accordingly. Same breed just different parent lines. So much for the gene editing that everybody was saying Kraig already accomplished.