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by snystrom 1585 days ago
> 'adult cell' (which I'd assume analogous to differentiated cell)

That's correct.

> I'd guess the transfer process is why she arrived with shorter telomeres at birth?

Also spot on. The donor somatic cell likely had shortened telomeres, resulting in shorter length in the embryo. It's kind of an interesting research question, because telomere length gets "restored" for germ cells (otherwise every time an organism produced sperm/eggs the telomeres would shorten), and these types of experiments demonstrate that there is a limit to that restorative process.