Romulans and Klingons Share Genetic Make Up

[Paradon]

I wonder if anyone catched that when they watch Star Trek: The Next Generation? I can't remember the episode name... It was about Geordi being stranded on a planet with a couple of Romulans. They beamed one board and treated him, but they couldn't get a blood type that match. They scan all the Vulcans' blood but no match. However they found a match it was Worf's...a Klingon. The only explanaion for that is that not only did they exchange technologies with one another, but, also genetics. We have more in common with a tulip on earth than a Vulcan, and yet, we are able to have children through gene therapy of the womb and DNA resequencing, so I guess that must have happened with Klingons and Romulans before they betrayed the Klingons.

 

[Vanyel]

Or maybe it's because of the aliens introduced in TNG's The Chase that gave the Klingon blood, properties that help make it a near match to Romulan.

 

[Timo]

Well, according to TNG "The Chase", all humanoids in the galaxy are related, and all have been more or less artificially created, in a program that perverts the course of natural evolution. And the episode suggests that one of the principal goals of that program was to perpetuate the humanoid heritage and to bring all the resulting species together in a spirit of cooperation - thus further suggesting that genetical, general biological and especially reproductive compatibility would be major project elements.

Besides, in that episode you mention, TNG "The Enemy", all we learn is that a single Klingon aboard the ship had compatible components in his blood. Nothing was said about species, just about individuals. Let's try an analogy: a Japanese prisoner in the early stages of the Pacific part of WWII is brought aboard an Allied warship, where several crewmen of various European and Asian phenotypes are screened for the correct blood type for saving the prisoner's life (for interrogation purposes). None test positive for AB- blood - but a black man from the Netherlands comes forth, says he has AB- blood, and then refuses to cooperate because he hates all Japs with passion. Now what does that tell us about the biological relationship between the various races mentioned in the scenario? Or the various nationalities?

In "The Enemy", the particular blood component was a bit more specific than just blood group - Crusher was looking for a certain sort of ribosomes (a cell organ that currently cannot be clinically transfused). And she was looking for them in all of the crew, never limiting her search to the Vulcans or Vulcanoids aboard.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Paradon]

It is kindda far fetch IMO that two races which could be considered the same species, according to Crusher: the two races are virtually identical, do not have the same ribosome. And why can't they just synthesize his own blood? I thought with the 24th century's advanced technologies they would be able to do it.

 

[Timo]

the two races are virtually identical, do not have the same ribosome.

Apparently it's not a question of race or species, it's a question of individuals. In the blood group issue, it doesn't help that we are all the same species here in mankind; individuals may still be incompatible with each other.

Now, nobody has ever even considered transfusing ribosomes in reality, because that makes no sense to current medicine: ribosomes are organs within our cells, whereas blood is something that either consists of cells or exists outside cells. It's currently practical to transfuse cells, but not to muck around with their innards.

By the time of TNG, though, doctors might have learned their way around these incompatibility issues by leaving the blood (or other organs) as is, and only transfusing key subcomponents of blood (or of other organs) that are indifferentiated enough that they don't have any rejection issues. The whole 24th century medical approach might be based on that - and even things that do have rejection issues, such as ribosomes (hypothetically, that is - nobody today knows whether ribosomes would be rejected), are handled according to this paradigm.

It's a more or less valid scifi analogue trick, having Crusher perform a procedure that resembles a blood transfusion, and then run into issues that resemble those present in blood transfusions. Worf may have been compatible, but that doesn't mean all Klingons would have been. None of the onboard Vulcans were compatible, but that doesn't mean 37% of Vulcans wouldn't be. And obviously Crusher thought that some humans would be compatible, too, because she also screened the entire human crew for potential donors.

And why can't they just synthesize his own blood? I thought with the 24th century's advanced technologies they would be able to do it.

The writer acknowledged that by inserting a line where Crusher declares the molecules in ribosomes "too complex to replicate". Which is probably for the best, because ribosomes are complex lifeforms on their own right; if replicating them were easy, then replicating humans should be easy as well.

Anyway, a nitpick here: Crusher wasn't really speaking of a blood transfusion. She was speaking of a ribosome transfusion treatment of some sort, which may or may not have involved the patient's blood. Supposedy Crusher set out to repair every cell in the patient's body, not just his blood cells. Which is only logical, because blood cells in general don't have ribosomes...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Paradon]

Maybe she was scanning the human crew members, and everyone else for that matter, because she thought some of them may have one or maybe several Romulan acestors. As it turns out in one of the episode, one of the crew member grandfather was actually a Romulan, not a Vulcan.

 

[Paradon]

Ok. We have the same the problem when the ship is being attack. They can keep the people from exploding and the remains being blown out...it's like there is an invisible forcefield that keeps the crews intact and lessen the force of the air rushing out... but they can't keep people from falling down when the ships are being bombarded by enemy's weapons. LOL I'm sure Crusher had the same problems when she try to synthesize them. It's like it's just a matter of figuring out how to manipulate the technology like we see all throughout out every series! LOL

 

[Timo]

Maybe she was scanning the human crew members, and everyone else for that matter, because she thought some of them may have one or maybe several Romulan acestors.

Yet Crusher not only screens everybody - she more or less indicates that Vulcans or Vulcanoids were on the second place in her search priority list, by first saying that humans had too many bio-rejection factors, and only then saying that she has ruled out the local pool of Vulcans as well. It's as if species identity would play no real role in the compatibility of the ribosomes.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Biggshow]

"Romulans and Klingons Share Genetic Make Up"

I believe it's called foam latex.

...what?

 

[Tiberius]

it is very possible that there is a gene in Romulans that is most similar to a gene in Klingons, even though the two races are not as closely related as Romulans and Vulcans.

For the same reason, even though Humans are most closely related to apes like chimps and bonoboes, it is very possible that if you look at just one particular gene, the gene most similar to the one found in humans could be found in carrots.

 

[Paradon]

It is terribly rare for two different species to be able to rerproduce and have offsprings. It is very rare, but sometimes it does happen, and usually, the offsrprings are infertile. For example, donkeys and horses are totally different species, unrealted to one another, but they can crossed breed and produce mules which are infertile. A tiger and lions can have offsprings together, also, but they are closer to each other, they're in the big cat family, than donkeys and horses. Still the offsprings of a tiger and lion always infertile. Two alien species sharing the same ribosomes is kindda far fetch, probably impossible, unless they use gene therapy and DNA resequencing.

 

[mtblillie]

Maybe it had more to do with which one is more compatable with the resequencing. For example, you could say that you could make a the mule fertile if you resequenced the DNA or performed some sort of gene therapy that could make the mule fertile, whereas in every other case it would not be.

The problem that I have seen in star trek so many times when it comes to medicine is that they try and take common problems and make them more complex by converting the problem from simple tissue into the whole DNA thing, which IMHO is kind of stupid in many cases. As a medic, ppl have all kinds of problems with organs not functioning properly or trauma that causes severe damage, and saying that you are going to fix the problem with DNA therapy doesn't make any sense to me. If a person can't breathe resequencing their DNA isn't going to save them, either will a miracle drug, their blood needs oxygen, it is that simple.

The problem here is that it seems like they are using the problem of finding an organ donor compatable for transplant. In the real world, this is based a lot more on blood markers rather than genetic markers, so they overcomplecate the situation by saying that it requires some kind of genetic transplant rather than an organ transplant. A donor outside of a persons family can still give them an organ, it just has to match up, but genetics works a little differently.

To me it's just another one of those "it's a good plot but bad science" kind of episodes. Nothing wrong with that, just a little harder to make realistic.