Can a 10.5.8 bootable clone be used as a startup disk in 10.6.8

For the very experienced users and experts.
We have a mbp bootable clone with 10.5.8 and want to use this as a backup startup disk on a mba with 10.6.8.  We understand that it is generally not possible to startup a bootable clone that has a different os than what you are currently running.
In the reverse, if we tried to use a mba bootable clone with 10.6.8 as a startup disk on a mbp with 10.5.8 would this work or also crash?  Would this be possible or would be expect kernel panics due to missing sandy bridge drivers?  We understand that we would get 3 beeps and the grey screen if we tried.
In system preferences it temptingly shows that the different os bootable clone as being useable as a startup disk so it gives the impression this is an option that works.  However we understand that if we do indeed try to boot, we will freeze due to a bunch of permissions problems and such.  We're hoping to avoid our computer from freezing mid-stream in a startup disk switch and create a whole bunch of other problems.
We have no real desire to upgrade the 10.5.8 mbp to 10.6.8.  We did notice that an old iphoto library had to be upgraded for 10.6.8 when the 10.5.8 library was first opened in 10.6.8 and we understand this will now be unopenable in 10.5.8.
Many thanks for any responses to our questions.  Cheers.

E27 wrote:
We have a mbp bootable clone with 10.5.8 and want to use this as a backup startup disk on a mba with 10.6.8.  We understand that it is generally not possible to startup a bootable clone that has a different os than what you are currently running.
You should as long as the MP had booted off the 10.5.8 clone previously.
However I, and others also, found out that we can no longer boot off the 10.5 disks in a later 10.6+ Software Update, it might be the firmware was changed to disallow 10.5 from booting once on 10.6.+ sometime.
Apple might have done this because they don't want people using the 10.5 disk to repair their 10.6 altered drive.
Got the written kp hard boot screen and had to unplug the clone while frozen but there appears to be no permanent damage to any of the drives.  We suspected this may happen.
There is your answer and no, no pernament damage was done, it's all a read operation and the machine/firmware couldn't use the 10.5.8 drivers.
You'll have to find a Mac that is of the same model and runs 10.5 to boot off that 10.5.8 clone.

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