South Korean scientists say they have cloned cats whose genes
have been altered so that they glow in the dark - taking advantage
of a technological twist that could someday be used to make more
dramatic genetic changes in all sorts of creatures.
A research team at Gyeongsang National University, headed by Kong
Il-Keun, produced several kitty clones in January and February, the
government-managed Korea.net news service reported Wednesday. This
week the scientists showed off the cats, which now weigh about 7
pounds (3 to 3.5 kilograms) and glow a dull red under ultraviolet
light.
"The ability to manipulate the fluorescent protein and use this to
clone cats opens new horizons for artificially creating animals
with human illnesses linked to genetic causes," the Ministry of
Science and Technology said in Wednesday's report.
The procedure for cloning a cat has been around for six years, and
Kong himself first performed that particular feat back in 2004.
What's noteworthy about the newly reported twist - other than that
glow-in-the-dark kitties are really cool - is that scientists
fiddled with the donor cat's genetic code, then passed those
changes on to the clones.
Here's what the researchers say they did: They took skin cells from
Turkish Angora female cats and used a virus to insert the genetic
instructions for making red fluorescent protein. Then they put the
gene-altered nuclei into eggs for cloning. The cloned embryos were
implanted back into the donor cats, which effectively became the
surrogate mothers for their own clones.
Four kittens were born by Caesarian section, but one of them died
during the procedure, according to the Korea Times. The fact that
the kittens' skin cells glowed under ultraviolet light served as
evidence that they were really gene-altered clones.
Assuming that the results are confirmed, Kong's cats would join
mice and pigs in the glow-in-the-dark clone menagerie. The
implication is that if you can pass along the easy-to-recognize
coding for fluorescent markers through cloning, you could
eventually pass along more complex genetic coding.
Theoretically, you could add in the coding for an endangered
species, producing cloned hybrids to boost the gene pool for
Sumatran tigers, Iberian lynxes and the like. You might even stick
in the coding to give other creatures human diseases, so that they
can be studied without raising the level of ethical concern that
comes with human experimentation. (I realize that there's a
different set of ethical concerns about such trangenic experiments,
however.)
Most provocatively, animal clones might be genetically altered to
produce human body parts. Does that sound like a way-out
science-fiction plot? Well, it's already happening, and sparking an
unsettling debate.
This week's report doesn't mean that glow-in-the-dark pets will be
waiting under the Christmas tree anytime soon. There are a few
caveats surrounding these cats:
South Korean scientists say they have cloned cats whose genes have
been altered so that they glow in the dark - taking advantage of a
technological twist that could someday be used to make more
dramatic genetic changes in all sorts of creatures.
A research team at Gyeongsang National University, headed by Kong
Il-Keun, produced several kitty clones in January and February, the
government-managed Korea.net news service reported Wednesday. This
week the scientists showed off the cats, which now weigh about 7
pounds (3 to 3.5 kilograms) and glow a dull red under ultraviolet
light.
"The ability to manipulate the fluorescent protein and use this to
clone cats opens new horizons for artificially creating animals
with human illnesses linked to genetic causes," the Ministry of
Science and Technology said in Wednesday's report.
The procedure for cloning a cat has been around for six years, and
Kong himself first performed that particular feat back in 2004.
What's noteworthy about the newly reported twist - other than that
glow-in-the-dark kitties are really cool - is that scientists
fiddled with the donor cat's genetic code, then passed those
changes on to the clones.
Here's what the researchers say they did: They took skin cells from
Turkish Angora female cats and used a virus to insert the genetic
instructions for making red fluorescent protein. Then they put the
gene-altered nuclei into eggs for cloning. The cloned embryos were
implanted back into the donor cats, which effectively became the
surrogate mothers for their own clones.
Four kittens were born by Caesarian section, but one of them died
during the procedure, according to the Korea Times. The fact that
the kittens' skin cells glowed under ultraviolet light served as
evidence that they were really gene-altered clones.
Assuming that the results are confirmed, Kong's cats would join
mice and pigs in the glow-in-the-dark clone menagerie. The
implication is that if you can pass along the easy-to-recognize
coding for fluorescent markers through cloning, you could
eventually pass along more complex genetic coding.
Theoretically, you could add in the coding for an endangered
species, producing cloned hybrids to boost the gene pool for
Sumatran tigers, Iberian lynxes and the like. You might even stick
in the coding to give other creatures human diseases, so that they
can be studied without raising the level of ethical concern that
comes with human experimentation. (I realize that there's a
different set of ethical concerns about such trangenic experiments,
however.)
Most provocatively, animal clones might be genetically altered to
produce human body parts. Does that sound like a way-out
science-fiction plot? Well, it's already happening, and sparking an
unsettling debate.
This week's report doesn't mean that glow-in-the-dark pets will be
waiting under the Christmas tree anytime soon. There are a few
caveats surrounding these cats:
Pics of the cat here.
