reynard531

EDIT: Originally written 06/24/13.

Here's something interesting, my theory of Pokemon Genomic Imprinting.

First, what is genomic imprinting? Genomic imprinting is a process done with some animals, mainly mammals I think. Precise imprinting is required for healthy offspring. This process uses extra DNA markers called epigenetic tags that mark a gene as inaccessible or "imprinted". Going back to my metaphor of your genome as a library, these would be tags placed on books saying "DO NOT USE".  This process means that certain genes you get are imprinted, depending on whether you get them from your mother or your father.

The classic example involves two genetic disorders, Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS) and Angelman Syndrome (AS). Both cause different symptoms but have been traced back to errors on the same genes on chromosome 15. The genes in question are subject to imprinting. Normally when a gene from one parent is imprinted, the body would turn to the other copy, the one from the other parent. After all, DNA comes in pairs.

But when that other open copy has an error, or is flat out gone, then you have a problem. For PWS, the genes controlling it are imprinted on the maternal side. So if the paternal copy has been deleted, you get PWS. By contrast, the genes concerning AS are imprinted on the paternal side. If the maternal copy is there, then everything is fine, but if it has been deleted, then AS is the result.

The DNA you have keeps these "use/do not use" labels through adulthood. But when you grow up, something different is done in the reproductive tissue. There, the tags are reset to match a single pattern, paternal for men, maternal for women. This process, as I already tried to explain, is very important and delicate, so it takes a great deal of time. In men it takes months, in women, years.

I believe that all Pokemon species perform genomic imprinting of a sort, and that this type of process is used to help control their ability to evolve to their next stage. My evidence comes from the special involving Mewtwo's Return.

Does anyone know how cloning works? Cloning in the real world takes two forms. One is using stem cells found in organs to clone whole organs. This idea is being suggested for people that could need kidney transplants. If they need one, they just bring out the clone kidney. Because it is a clone of one of their own kidneys, there is no eventual organ rejection.

The other type is cloning of a whole animal. This is done by first taking a body cell sample from the thing you want to clone. For Dolly the sheep, it was a mammary cell. Then you cut out the nucleus of the body cell. Next, you take an egg cell. Then you cut the nucleus out of that. The nucleus of the body cell is then put in the egg cell and the two are fused together before being placed back inside the mother, another member of the species. The resulting offspring is a genetic copy of the one where you got the body cell sample from.

Now one of the issues with mammalian cloning is imprinting. During the fusion, where the nucleus is supposed to be reset to be a fully functional embryo, the resetting process of imprinting takes place. But the job can never properly get done in the mere hours given before the cell is forced to divide and grow. So the end result is a bunch of potential errors.

Now let's look at Mewtwo. He had lots of clone Pokemon from the first movie. And in the special where they returned, two of them had babies. Isn't that wonderful? The Rhyhorn clone had little baby Rhyhorns, and the Nidoqueen clone had little baby Nidoqueens... wait a minute... Nidoqueens?!

Yes, Nidoqueens. Not female Nidorans, but fully evolved Nidoqueens, only miniature. Miniature adults, how is that possible? A reviewer named Suede on TGWTG asked the same thing when he reviewed the special: thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/ir/suede/animenia/39055-animenia-mewtwo-returns. 

Now he also said that Nidoqueen couldn't breed, but let's ignore that for how silly that is.

His reaction to the babies was not unjustified. It's weird. It's not supposed to happen. So why did it happen? My theory is that it was the result of an imprinting error.

When Pokemon evolve, it is like growing up. And when many of them evolve, their bodies can change rapidly. I mean our human bodies change and grow as we get older, but compared to some Pokemon, it's nothing. To take an extreme example, look at Magikarp and Gyarados.

Magikarp is small and weak, only knowing Splash. It definitely seems like it is low on the food chain. It also seems like the type of fish that would eat either plants or microscopic organisms. That being the case, its stomach and digestive track would be adjusted to that sort of diet, producing enzymes just to break down that type of food. Gyarados on the other hand is the very definition of top predator. No really, look up the term and you'll see the picture. It is big and powerful, and would have very different energy requirements. Also, those sharp teeth would indicate that it is a carnivore. Being a meat eater means needing a very different set of stomach enzymes to break down its food.

There would be other stomach differences too. Given its size, it would probably eat in large quantities. We humans eat bunches of food regularly throughout the day, and our stomachs are made for that. But some other animals are different. Wolves used to be thought of as gluttonous because they were seen eating large amounts of meat. But they are not. Unlike us, wolves eat large meals at one sitting, and then can go up to two weeks before needing to eat again. They aren't gluttonous, they eat basically as much as they need like any other animal. They are just on a different schedule. And because of that schedule, their stomachs are built to process large amounts of meat all at once, unlike ours.

The digestive differences between Magikarp and Gyarados would require lots of different instructions, instructions that would be in DNA. That would be totally different, totally opposite genes.

Or take the Squirtle line. You have seen Squirtle and Wartortle fire Water Gun from their mouths, right? But tell me, has anyone ever seen a Blastoise do that, fire out of the mouth? Anyone? No. They don't do that. They always use their cannons. The organ that they previously possessed in their mouth or throat is either gone or shut down.

Or take the Nidorans. The first two forms walk on four legs, the last stage walks on two. The legs are bigger, stronger, and thicker. And they both have very hard armor to maintain in the last stage. That takes different genes.

My theory is that Pokemon use epigenetic tags to mark out the genes related to their higher evolutionary stages when they are born, because they aren't needed at the beginning. For neatness sake, imagine that the genes for each stage are kept bundled in different sections, like stage 1 is in section A, stage 2 in section B, so on and so forth. When a Pokemon evolves, a mechanism is triggered in the body cells to remove the epigenetic tags from the genes for the next stage, and to also place new tags on the genes for the previous stage because they are no longer needed.

Now when a Pokemon is getting close to the point where it can reproduce, something different occurs in the reproductive tissue. Just like real world mammals, the tags are reset, so that only the higher stage genes are marked out, and the first stage genes are open. This process, like in real animals, takes a long time to get right. Considering how important it is, wouldn't you want it to take its time and make sure it's done right? I would.

Back to Mewtwo. Mewtwo's cloning technique still took body cell samples from other Pokemon. And while he may have found a way to grow them in tubes and accelerate the aging process so that they were the same age as the originals, I think his process was also too fast, just like ours. The imprinting process couldn't finish, and so the epigenetic tags were stuck in the same places as the body cell from which the DNA was acquired.

This is what happened to the clone Nidoqueen, and also explains Suede's valid comment about how Mewtwo goes on and on about them being rejected and different despite never being shown, and his clones looking just like normal Pokemon (minus some skin markings). Let's say that they tried living among normal Pokemon at first.

Rhyhorn found another nice Rhyhorn, and Nidoqueen found herself a very nice Nidoking. And all was well. Things were looking even better when the two laid eggs. And things looked even better when Rhyhorn's babies hatched. Things were fantastic, right? Then Nidoqueen's eggs hatched... I imagine Nidoking would have had a reaction similar to Suede, and I wouldn't blame it.

The problem is that because of incomplete imprinting, the genes for the female Nidoran and Nidorina were marked out as inaccessible, and only the ones for Nidoqueen were open. That includes the stuff on the body pattern, and the patterns for growth and development. Cells have to organize themselves to grow in the right directions and along specific axes to get the shape they need. And this is partially what imprinting does for Pokemon. With multiple body patterns in the library, this is meant to prevent the wrong one from being used. So when Nidoqueen had babies, all she could offer them were instructions titled "How to Build a Nidoqueen". This explains how the unevolved one had normal kids, but the evolved one did not.

Miniature adults would have caused a panic among Pokemon, and that may have been the point at which Mewtwo realized he had a big problem. Count how many Pokemon he cloned in the first movie. I did. He cloned 25 of them, and out of that, only 5, 20% where in their first stage. So most of the other clones, if they laid eggs, would probably have kids that were already evolved. Of course that is still no excuse for none of the characters in that special caring at all that the babies were already evolved, and yet still babies.

What do you all think? Do you like it? Please check out Suede's review, and all his other stuff too. His Pokemon movie reviews with some of the other reviewers is what I think got me interested in Pokemon again. And also feel free to comment.