Is DNA from fraternal twins identical?
488041
No, fraternal twins have DNA that is as similar as brother and sister would be.  That's essential what they are, brother and sister (or sisters, or brothers), but simply born at the same time, since it is two separate eggs being fertilized by two separate sperm.
1044269
Well, technically identical twins are clones and many organisms with asexual reproduction clone themselves, so yes. I think the question should be if an artificial clone can reproduce; but most of them don't even live more than a few days.
878746
yes\nbut there aren't any laws against giving birth to identical twins, tripletts, quadruplets etc...\nwhats the difference when many times muliple births come from fertility drugs
681386
Your "soul"?  What are they teaching in biology class these days? :-)\n\nLook, a person and their clone would be no more alike than two normally occuring identical twins.  In fact, genetically, that's exactly what a clone is ... just an identical twin.  They *look* alike, and may have some similar propensities (they may both be naturally talented at math, say) ... but other than that they are two completely independent human beings.  They will have different experiences ... that makes them different.\n\nAs for your "soul", biologists are happy to leave that to the spiritual folks.  Biologists have no opinion either way.
457615
yes - if the DNA sources were from the same individual - person.
1077389
When two egg cells are fertilized by two sperm cells in the same period of time, fraternal twins are formed. So, if a woman’s ovaries release more than one egg during ovulation and the woman has contact with more than one man during her fertile period, it is possible that she will become pregnant with twins who have different fathers. This phenomenon is extremely rare, but possible.\n\nIn even rarer cases, fraternal twins from different fathers may result from mistakes made during assisted fertility procedures. For instance, if a woman is artificially inseminated with a mixture of two men’s sperm cells because the equipment was not properly cleaned after its last use, she may become pregnant with fraternal twins who have different biological fathers. Again, while possible, this occurrence is exceedingly rare.\n\nNote: Identical twins cannot have different fathers. Identical twins are formed when the zygote created from one egg cell and one sperm cell splits during its development. When a single zygote produces twins, one man is the father of both children.
169599
I guess you mean by true twins identical twins. Identical twins cannot be a girl and boy, they always have the same  sex. Identical twins are formed when one fertilized ovule(egg) divides into 2 cells; each one eventually producing one of the twins. This means that the twins share identical DNA therefore genetic material and have the same sex. However fraternal twins come from 2 separate fertilized ovules and could give a boy and a girl.
66702
I believe identical twins and fraternal twins are both hereditary. It is quite common what your cousin has experienced.
1133910
DNA has already been cloned, so your question is meaningless. This was done in bacteria over 40 years ago, and is how human insulin is now produced en masse.
381226
HEY ARESEANTLERS! Let me clue you in on this. You can have the exact same DNA but still have different fingerprints. Fingerprints can't change DNA assumptions. By the way, identical twins DO share the same DNA because they come from the same sperm and fetus. Sperm carries DNA and so does the fetus. So how will the twins be different from each other?
868605
They share just about everything - size, morphology (metacentric, submetacentric or acrocentric) and banding pattern at metaphase (see http://members.aol.com/chrominfo/geninfo.htm for a nice quick explanation of these things).\n\nWhat will not be shared will be minute variations in the exact sequence of the DNA, given that half of the sequence will orginate from the mother and half from the father. These genetic differences account for phenotypic (physical) differences following expression of all the genes and contribute to the fact that your parents are not identical.
1044618
My sister and I are identical twins.\n\nOnce, someone asked us if we ever got ourselves mixed up! (Really!)  :-))
357346
I'm a twin, and we do have similar traits, we think on the same wavelength, but our personalities differ, i am outgoing, my brother is more laid back. So, i think it's in the genes.i'm like my dad, he's like my mum.
1185780
yes, it is technically possible.\n\nHowever, as you say, it is almost infinitely unlikely.  The chance of fraternal twins being identical would be the same as any two other siblings being identical.\n\nEach parent has a pair of each of the 23 different chromosomes.  you will get one of two chromosomes in each set from each of your parents.  \n\nIf you assume the odds of getting any one of the two chromosomes of each pair from each parent are 50/50 (assume that each chromosome in each pair is different-which should be true unless there was some incest in your family), the odds would be 2^46 to 1 that a sibling happened to get the same 46 chromosomes.  that comes to about 1 chance out of 70 trillion. (that is, of being genetically identical).\n\nanother way to calculate this is to figure the odds of having two genetically identical eggs from a woman, which is one in 8.4 million, and mulitplying the odds of having two identical sperm from a man, which is also one in 8.4 million, and multiplying these two numbers together-which gives you 1 chance in 70 trillion.\n\nthere are other possible factors, such as how each egg was treated (so were some genes turned on or off), astrology, mitochondrial DNA (which should be the same between any siblings so shouldnt be a factor), development in the womb, and others.  However, i assume what you were talking about was if they could be genetically identical, which they can, 1 out of 70 trillion times.\n\nthe odds of winning the powerball lottery are 70 million to one.  so if you played the lottery one time for each time someone had twins, you would win the powerball lottery one million times for each time someone had identical fraternal twins.\n\nthe chance of two random sets of parents having identical twins is theoretically possible, but the odds of that are so extremely low, it makes the odds of the lottery or identical fraternal twins look like a near certainty.
957887
Each chromosome in your body has an "identical pair"- there are two chromosomes that code for the same functions- one from your mother and one from your father.\n\nBecause they come from two sources, they are coding for the same functions, but may code differently for them (ie blue eyes as opposed to brown eyes).\n\nDuring prophase one, each chromosome duplicates into two sister chromatids joined by a centromere, and then the double stranded chromosome finds it's partner which is coding for the same thing (just came from the opposite parent), and is also double stranded.  Now you have a 4 stranded tetrad.\n\nGenetic variability comes from crossing over.  This is where the two chromatids closest together in the tetrad exchange some genetic information.\n\nFor example, two of the chromatids code for blue eyes, brown hair and shortsightedness.\nThe other two chromatids code for brown eyes, red hair and normal vision.\n\nDuring crossing over one chromatid from each pair forming the tetrad literally have ends "crossing over" and bits of information are exchanged.\n\nAfter crossing over, you have 4 chromatids with unique codings.  Using the example above, we may now have:\n-blue eyes, brown hair, shortsightedness\n-blue eyes, red hair, normal vision\n-brown eyes, brown hair, shortsightedness\n-brown eyes, red hair, normal vision\n\nWe now have genetic variability in each gamete produced from this meiotic division.
271200
No. Identical twins are genetical clones but they have absolutely two diffenrent souls, different characters.\nIf God will ever allow people to be cloned, then He will also give these clones souls - because the clones are real people, with real needs, real life - and real soul.
397057
I just want to point out the fact that xaviar's and gradwrkout's answers are both very good.  Identical twins are spawned from a single set of DNA, so in theory, they are completely identical.  Some cells will vary due to mutations during DNA replication and other DNA mutating events, but mostly they will be identical.\n\nHowever, epigenetics can change throughout a person's lifetime, without altering the actual base-pairs of DNA.  Epigenetic changes include DNA CpG methylation, which can silence certain genes, and is common in certain cancers.  Another example of an epigenetic change has to do with chromatin.  Chromatin is what DNA is called when it is bound to histone core proteins.  When people talk about chromosomes, the chromosomes are always bound to histone.  The histone cores have little protein tails that can be altered in certain ways, which affects when a gene can be transcribed/translated.  Epigenetic changes can occur based on how you live your life-- if one twin lives in california and the other in london, the differences in their lifestyles will reflect in epigenetic changes.  Everything from diet and exercise to sleeping, etc, affects epigenetics.\n\nSo to answer the question, yes, their DNA is essentially identical, but over the course of their lifetimes, epigenetic changes can make them significantly different.  Also, just fyi, epigenetic changes are heritable.