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sea unleashed: Glowing rats are only the beginning. |
by D. Trull
Enigma Editor
dtrull@parascope.com
In the wake of the ballyhooed social debut of Dolly the sheep, it would be all too easy to get fixated on the controversies of cloning and forget what other crazy stuff is going down in genetic research these days. We've got to remember: it's a whole lot easier to make an exact copy of something than it is to concoct something entirely original, which is why the guys we better keep an eye on are the geneticists cooking up whole new animals from their nucleotide stew.
Scientists worldwide are hard at work on a taxonomy-twisting menagerie of nouveau beasts, transforming corny kindergarten riddles into reality. What do you get when you cross a chicken with a quail? Neurobiologists in California got baby chicks that sing beautifully instead of chirping. What do you get when you cross a cow with a person? A British-American biotech group got cow's milk that contains human breast milk proteins. What do you get when you cross a mouse with a jellyfish? Japanese researchers got rats that glow in the dark.
Geneticists at Osaka University implanted DNA from an iridescent species of jellyfish into mouse embryos, and the resulting miracle mice fluoresce bright green under ultraviolet light. There are countless glowing species of insects and aquatic life in nature, but this is the first time there have ever been glowing mammals.
The recent birth of five of the verdantly vibrant vermin represents four years of research led by Professor Masaru Okabe, who originally set out to pioneer new ways of observing developing mammal fetuses. The technique is now expected to be used as a means of easily identifying certain cells within an organism, such as white blood cells or cancerous tumors.
"We have also developed the technology to make specific cells glow as markers, so the effects of research can be observed without killing the animals and opening them up," said Dr. Shuichi Yamada, an associate of Okabe. Scientists at Cambridge have already shown that human cell samples can be successfully tagged in this way.
Okabe's team is planning next to produce glowing rabbits and monkeys, those other two favorite mascots of the testing lab. The group hopes their work will "open the door to a more humane approach to medical research," but not everyone is convinced. Some argue that many of these animals will inevitably end up being killed in the course of research, despite the cruelty-free claims. In other cases, it could be that a phosphorescent zoo is a little too wacky for the staid scientific community to deal with just yet.
"The marker technology has potential. But I have my doubts as to how significant a breakthrough it is for medical research," said Tokyo University biologist Robert Shiurba. "They should have made the announcement on Halloween."
To kill everyone's mutant-mouse buzz even further, the researchers explain that the baby mice's healthy green glow will disappear as they grow and fur covers their skin. The glow will remain visible only around the adult rodents' feet and mouths. Additionally, Yamada stressed that that these animals will be bred only for scientific research. Glow-in-the-dark mice will not be available as "novelty pets."
Let's hope it stays that way. God only knows what unholy marketing terrors would be unleashed if the Disney people got ahold of this technology. And what's worse, luminous rats could trigger a dangerous boom in certain urban-legendary practices. Shaved down, these self-illuminating little buggers might seem a safer gamble to stick where the sun don't shine.
Sources: Associated Press; The Times (London); CNN; Electronic Telegraph
(c) Copyright 1997 ParaScope, Inc.
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