How diverse is the Jem Hadar gene pool?

[WraithDukat]

So we know the Jem Hadar are clones, yet they look nothing alike. Other clone armies we've seen look exactly alike (The Sontarans and the Clone Army) so this leads me to believe they have 100s or 1000s of 'templates' - I'm guessing this to provide a bit diversity in the crew (in the personality/abilities sense).

Thoughts?

 

[Timo]

Actually, nobody ever says the Jem'Hadar would be "clones". They are grown in vitro, yes, and they are genetically engineered, yes, but there's nothing about "cloning" there in any episode. Unlike with the Vorta, which use the explicit terminology and accordingly exhibit lots of identical twins.

Mention is made of a Jem'Hadar "hatchery", though. Perhaps the species is efficiently bred from eggs or comparable structures?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Tosk]

Early planning had Jem'Hadar being clones (and looking identical) but never made it past that point.

Also, we have seen that Jem'Hadar grow up from infancy as thinking beings, rather than being cloned straight into adulthood.

 

[Timo]

Cloning in Trek has several meanings. But most often it refers either to a technique for creating perfect physical copies of an adult specimen (such as in "Up the Long Ladder"), supposedly in need of life experiences to fill the vacuum between their ears - or to a technique for xeroxing people wholesale, with nothing left ashore, least of all the contents of the brain (similar to how the TET in Oblivion could physically xerox all of Tom Cruise but had no understanding of biology and thus couldn't clone all-new people who would lack the head contents of Tom Cruise).

We seldom hear of cloning that would involve babies being born and then physically growing up, at a natural or unnatural pace (Shinzon is basically the only example that comes to mind) - but we often hear of types of procreation or multiplication that involve accelerated maturation but aren't supposed to be cloning, such as how one gets adult Borg or Jem'Hadar.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[EyalM]

Cloning might not produce identical looking individuals for Jem'Hadar. In humans, identical twins still have some variations, like different fingerprints. The variation might be much more pronounced in Jem'Hadar.
Or maybe, if I were a founder, I'd release multiple types of Jem'Hadar. See which fare better and rework the next batches, and so on. Artificial (and natural) selection must have variations in order to work.

 

[Tosk]

Cloning might not produce identical looking individuals for Jem'Hadar. In humans, identical twins still have some variations, like different fingerprints. The variation might be much more pronounced in Jem'Hadar.
Or maybe, if I were a founder, I'd release multiple types of Jem'Hadar. See which fare better and rework the next batches, and so on. Artificial (and natural) selection must have variations in order to work.

That's a lot of maybes to try and make it fit considering cloning was never mentioned in conjunction with the Jem'Hadar in the first place.

 

[Sisko_is_my_captain]

It makes sense to have some genetic diversity in your army, so that a single weakness can't take out the entire group. I don't even remember an onscreen remark that the Jem'Hadar were cloned (the Vorta, yes). If the J'H were clones, maybe the Dominion starts with a batch of clones, then introduces some genetic variation into play at some point, to diversify the genome somewhat. Like making a bowl of sugar cookie dough, then pulling some out to add chocolate chips, some more to add walnuts, or whatever.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

It also makes sense to specialize your army. So some are a little better at ground combat, some are a little better at ship combat, some a little better at navigating, some a little better at tactics.

 

[jaime]

Twenty basic models...cup holders and stereo optional extras.