#geneticengineering

#geneticengineering

Can We Bring the Dodo Back from Extinction?The dodo is a sad story of how quickly a species can be gone due to human irresponsibility. Discovered at the turn of the 17th century, the flightless bird quickly went extinct after only 100 years as it fell victim to hunting by humans and became prey to dogs, cats, and pigs brought by the explorers. But now, there is hope in the de-extinction of the species, as scientists have finally fully sequenced the species' genome. However, it is not yet published, but one of the people behind the sequencing, Beth Shapiro, says it will be soon.Despite the fully sequenced genome, we might still not see a living dodo soon because birds have intricate reproductive pathways. Editing cells and turning them into actual mammals is easier, Shapiro remarks. In other words, we need a new approach for birds.A potential method could be editing a Nicobar pigeon's DNA. As the dodo and this pigeon are closely related genetically, scientists could edit the pigeon's DNA to include the dodo DNA. But it will probably look a bit different compared to the extinct dodo.(Image Credit: 123rf via NZ Herald)#GenomeMapping #DNA #GeneticEngineering #Dodo #Animals

Scientists Genetically Engineered Daddy Longlegs Into Daddy Short LegsWhy do daddy longlegs have, well, such long legs? To find out the answer, scientists created a mutated version of the arachnid - call 'em daddy shortlegs - to find out how the animal's genetic codes evolve over time and how their legs became so lengthened.First, researchers led byGuilherme Gainett of the University of Wisconsin-Madison sequenced the genome of Phalangium opilio, a species of harvestmen or daddy longlegs. Then they used a technique called 'mRNA interference' to turn off a pair of genes associated with leg development in the embryo. The result is an animal with six of its eight legs abnormally shortened.  Gainett observed that the legs also seemed to have been transformed into a different kind of appendage called pedipalp, which is used to handle food."The genome of the daddy long legs holds great potential to clarify the complex history of arachnid genome evolution and body plan, as well as to reveal how daddy long legs make their unique long legs," said Gainett to CNET."Looking forward, we are interested in understanding how genes give rise to novel features of arachnids, such as spider fangs and scorpion pinchers, and also leveraging the genome to develop the first transgenic harvestmen," he added.Image: Gainett et al.#spider #daddylonglegs #harvestmen #geneticengineering #mRNA