Chromosomes, Super-Powers, and Warren Ellis
In his super-hero work with Wildstorm and Marvel, Warren Ellis has repeatedly returned to the concept that extra chromosomes can lead to super-powers. Sure, it’s mostly comic book science-fiction, but there is some real science behind it — science that Ellis mostly gets right.
DV8 #8
The team stumbles across a forgotten Soviet town populated entirely by children. Of course, these aren’t normal children, but children who were experimented on and are now genetically — and in many cases, mechanically — enhanced.
Sublime talks to one of the girls who recognizes DV8 as kindred spirits. The girl tells Sublime that they both have “three-strings” which Sublime realizes means that they are triploid — they have three sets of chromosomes instead of the normal two.
It is not clear if the Soviet children were born with three sets of chromosomes or theirs were altered later. The story suggests that either may be true. DV8, however, were born with their “Gen-Factor” and so if we are to believe the little girl, were born triploid.
Triploidy has been known to occur in humans, but always results in severe birth defects with the unfortunate child usually dying within a few hours after birth. In fact, the defects in triploid fetuses are so severe that the vast majority (50,000:1) are miscarried. While the idea that a third set of chromosomes grants the DV8 team and the Soviet children super-powers seems a clever concept, it is far from the unfortunate reality of triploidy in humans.
ULTIMATE HUMAN #1
In this series, Bruce Banner comes to Tony Stark looking for help in controlling his transformations into the Hulk. Looking at the data Bruce provided, Tony mentions
Is this polyploidy I’m looking at? More than two sets of chromosomes? It might account for increased cell size…
Polyploidy is an SAT-word for individuals or species that have more than 2 sets of chromosomes. If you want, you can get even more specific: three sets (triploidy), four sets (tetraploidy), five sets (pentaploidy), six sets (hexaploidy), and so on, but polyploidy is a good generic term.
Polypoloids are important in agriculture and a very common finding in plants. It is estimated that at least 70% of flowering plants are polyploid. Special techniques and chemicals are used by horticulturists to create polyploid plants. This tends to dramatically increase the size of these plants and their resultant fruits and vegetables.
On the other hand, polyploidy is rare in animals. It can be found in some of the lower species (flatworms, leeches) and even some amphibians; but requires reproduction through parthenogenesis. In higher animals, polyploidy is extremely rare – especially in mammals. There have been attempts to breed polyploid cattle, but they never worked out well. However, the animals did have greatly increased muscle mass over their normal ancestors.
In this case, I like the polyploid idea. It explains — as well as anything else — why the Hulk’s muscles are so ridiculously huge, and it has at least a little basis in reality. It opens up some other questions (such as, is the Hulk sterile?), but these are probably best left unanswered.
ASTONISHING X-MEN #25
The X-Men have discovered at least two people who apparently have mutant powers, but don’t register as a mutant on any of their scans. After obtaining a tissue sample, the Beast is able to determine that the individuals in question have had a third set of artificial chromosomes added their genome. He tells Cyclops that “functional triploids do not occur in human nature” (which is true, but maybe somebody should tell DV8). He then goes on to explain that these new chromosomes with their misplaced x-gene is what is allowing them to remain undetected.
An artificial triploid is a clever concept, and not entirely in the realm of fiction. Yeast artificial chromosomes have been around since the early 80s, and bacterial artificial chromosomes were developed 10 years later. In 1997, artificial human chromosomes were developed. These are small mini-chromosomes – they can only hold a handful of genes — that are only stable for about six months. Far from what the Beast was describing, but still closer than most comic book genetics.
The Beast’s comments in this issue raise some interesting points:
How do you get that third set of chromosomes into every cell in the body? Or does it only have to be in certain cells — in which case the Beast got lucky with his tissue sample.Beast mentions that the mutant gene sits on the 23rd chromosome. Interestingly enough, the 23rd chromosome is the sex-chromosome…so the x-gene must be on the X-chromosome, but is it also on the Y? Are female mutants more powerful?
December 17th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
These are some of the smartest comic-book science ideas I’ve heard in a while. As a scientist I normally just switch off as soon as anything vaguely scientific is mentioned, as an evolutionary biologist the X-Men can often really upset me, but I like what I see here! I never read Ellis’ Ultimate Fantastic Four, but he sounds like a good writer to tackle Reed Richards, anyone know how it turned out?
Excellent blog by the way, I’ve been meaning to post for a while, keep up the good work.
December 17th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
Official Comment
Ellis’s issues of UFF were good — he came up with some fascinating insights into the physiology of the main characters. It went steadily downhill with each subsequent writer after he left, however.
December 17th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
[...] An exploration of the use of extra chromosomes to explain super-powers, as used in the works of Warren Ellis: [...]
December 17th, 2008 at 8:11 pm
So, is Klinefelter’s syndrome one of the few forms of polyploidy which doesn’t necessarily lead to extreme developmental difficulties (aside from infertility)?
Also, since platypi have 10 sex chromosomes (always 5 matching pairs), does that make them decaploid or just generally freaky?
December 17th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Official Comment
Technically, Klinefelter’s is not polyploidy, but aneuploidy.
Polyploidy refers due multiple copies of an entire set of chromosomes. Aneuploidy refers to the duplication of a single chromosome, such as Klinefelter’s (XXY) or Down’s Syndrome (three copies of the 21st chromosome).
December 17th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
I consider Ellis’s UFF run to be a shining diamond of superhero comics-writing. It was a truly fresh rethinking of the characters AND the science! HOW I WISH he had been the writer to introduce Ultimate Namor. (Plus, Ellis writes female characters the way I have always wished everyone would write female characters– as full, rounded PEOPLE, with both competencies and flaws. Immediately upon the end of his run on the series, Sue started getting characterized as a boring, Needy Temperamental High-Maintenance Female Stereotype. I will not mention the name of the offending writer, lest I rant. More. ;))
Loved Warren Ellis’s take on Galactus, too, in Ultimate Nightmare, Ultimate Secret, and Ultimate OMG EAT UR PLANET!!!!!!
December 17th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Ah, okay, thanks for the clarification.
December 17th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
My first comment! (long time stalker here)… the Hulk is in fact fertile in “Planet Hulk”.
I love your reviews :D
*goes back into hiding*
December 17th, 2008 at 11:57 pm
I would have thought the gamma radiation would have been the major cause of Hulk being sterile.
December 18th, 2008 at 6:45 am
The X-gene being on chromosome 23 wouldn’t make female mutants more powerful. We males have one active X–and so do female mammals, because in each cell one X is inactivated and becomes a “Barr body”. In no situation would genes on both of a person’s chromosome 23’s be expressed.
In us primates, I can make an argument that male mutants would be even more powerful, because the same X would be active in all cells. In females the X-gene would only be expressed in half their somatic cells.
December 18th, 2008 at 7:20 am
Ok,
Short time lurker , , but a few questions:
1) Warren Ellis is a scary good writer.
2) Being a neophyte science geek, I have no way to know the following: how often does a “beneficial” mutation occur, on average (if any)? If triploids are in reality harmful, is that always the case or is it just a matter of time before we find out about the existence of a viable triploid, due to the increase in people getting their DNA sequenced, for various reasons? I mean, if it is one in a billion, there should be at least six people out there with this beneficial mutation, right? (credit to Spider Robinson for that idea…)
3) RE: the Hulk and gamma radiation:
I thought the whole “bit” about the Hulk was he was able to process gamma radiation on a cellular level, so it didn’t harm him, therefore it wouldn’t make him sterile, right?
December 18th, 2008 at 7:40 am
My first comment! (long time stalker here)… the Hulk is in fact fertile in “Planet Hulk”.
That’s 616/mainstream Hulk. The Hulk referred to here is the Ultimate Universe version of Hulk (who does not owe his origin to Gamma radiation, but rather to an experimental version of Cap’s super-soldier serum).
Great stuff as always, Scott :)
December 18th, 2008 at 8:33 am
@Graham – Ah, you’re thinking of regular radiation, which tends to kill things and make them sicker. Marvel radiation is more likely to give you superpowers. Banner probably has the same “Man of steel, woman of tissue” situation that Superman does, having to go to extreme measures (or find a suitably durable girlfriend) to be sure his swimmers don’t go in and then blast a hole out of the other side.
@Scott – Yeah, if nothing else, I thought it was a nice touch pointing out that Mr. Fantastic effectively can’t have any organs, doing what he does. Heh, still mildly amused at the whole bit with the Mad Thinker grafting most of her brother’s brain onto her own so as to have more raw matter to work with. Always made me think of the series of Dilbert strips where Ratbert was a consultant for Dogbert and walked around with a piece of liver strapped to his stomach, claiming that their consultants were so intelligent “they needed an external brain”.
December 18th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Regarding your 2nd point, in Marvel world at least yes most of the time female mutant are more powerful – see Storm, Jean and Rachel Grey, etc. At least, except very few exception (Iceberg and kid Omega), most omega teen mutant are females, wheter some male mutant can have this level after years of experience with their own power.
December 18th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
It was very gratifying to see this discussion on comic book science. I strongly feel that comics are better when the science fiction part is done well. It’s just more fun that way! Plus, comics are a great way to get young readers interested in science. That’s what happened to me! Now I’m a professional chemist and I’m playing around with the idea for a blog about comic book science. I’d really appreciate any feedback from anyone out there on what the right “tone” would be. You can check it out at: http://www.comicbookscience.com.
Thanks, I appreciate your time. And I love this blog – very intelligent approach to comics and that’s hard to find.
December 19th, 2008 at 12:10 am
2 copies of *each* chromosome? Doesn’t that knock out almost half of the human race?
December 19th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Ignoring Carl’s comments regarding Barr bodies (sorry dude) then
1, the X-gene lies on the X-chromosone; and
2, the X-gene is dominant;
then whilst it would not necessarily mean that female mutants are more powerful, it should mean that they are more likely to have multiple powers. It would probably also mean that female mutants are more likely to die when they manifest their mutancy as the powers may not necessarily be compatible. They could also have a synergistic effect which would explain Shibia’s observations on the gender of most alpha mutants. And surely if the X-gene is sexlinked then female mutants should outnumber male mutants?
December 19th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
@sean
Well, Class or Ultimate Hulk, we’re in agreement that he shouldn’t be able to repdro-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skaar
-What!? Bloody hell!
February 7th, 2010 at 6:52 am
More information about Chromosomes you can find in:
http://www.geneticsofpregnancy.com/Encyclopedia/Chromosomes.aspx?pid=2
This site contains information On Pregnancy Diseases And Genetic Testing.
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