Recent Biotechnology Innovation
Is a Bit Fishy: A Fluorescent PetOh and you thought I was JOKING about the Glofish huh? Well I found these on a whim when I searched for Glofish to go with the article... didn't expect to find genetically altered fish that glow green :o
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QuoteTAIPEI, Taiwan -- In the basement of a building down an alley here floats the future of bioengineered pets, and it is glowing.
In a corner, small fish flit about in a dozen aquariums. Bill Kuo, a manager at Taikong Corp., draws a thick curtain and switches on black lights over the tanks. Suddenly, the fish glow a bright green. "Imagine you come home from work, turn out the lights and look at these," Mr. Kuo says. "It's very relaxing."
Fluorescent fish are just one of the latest off-the-wall innovations to come along in the biotechnology march. American researchers are seeking approval for a super-size salmon, retooled with growth hormones. A Canadian company, Nexia Biotechnologies Inc., is injecting spider genes into goats to produce milk that can be refined and woven into "BioSteel," for use in surgical sutures and "ballistic protection," the company says. Another Canadian group has trademarked the name "EnviroPig" for its genetically modified swine, whose manure contains fewer phosphates, a natural pollutant.
But Taikong's fish, which hit the market in Taiwan last month, may well be the world's first genetically modified house pets -- certainly the first designed to glow in the dark and one of the first leisure-time applications for genetic engineering. Born in a Taiwan biologist's lab in 2001 and written up in a scientific journal, the fish were soon discovered by Taikong, a 20-year-old company that sells aquarium equipment and fish food to shops around the world.
Glowing Fish (http://www.mongabay.com/external/glowing_fish.htm)Original Source - Wall Street Journal (//http://Recent%20Biotechnology%20Innovation%20Is%20a%20Bit%20Fishy:%20A%20Fluorescent%20Pet)Frankenstein fish will glow in the bowl
By Thair ShaikhQuoteA TAIWANESE company has created a genetically modified zebra fish that will glow in the dark, raising fears among environmentalists and the aquarium industry that the fish will start a trend for bio-engineered "Frankenstein pets". The modified fish are expected to be imported into Britain later in the year.
They are the first ornamental fish to be genetically modified. A jellyfish gene has been added to make them glow yellow-green. The GM Medaka or zebra fish - an east Asian freshwater variety - has been developed by Taiwan's Taikong Corporation. It is called the TK-1.
Taikong reported strong interest in Britain, where the aquatic industry is worth £300 million a year. It insisted that the TK-1 was safe, sterile and the fluorescent gene was not harmful. Taikong said it would satisfy European Union rules that genetically modified imports must not threaten health or the environment.
Aquatic industry specialists are worried, however, that the TK-1 is the first of many GM pet fish destined for Britain. Tropical fish are being bio-engineered to tolerate cold and could colonise British waters if they escaped.
Frankenstein fish will glow in the bowl (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/taiwan/1393245/Frankenstein-fish-will-glow-in-the-bowl.html)Love this quote:
"Piranhas that could survive in our waterways would be a major problem," said Derek Lambert, the editor of Today's Fishkeeper magazine, who is urging traders to boycott the TK-1. "We are worried about Frankenstein fish."
Ya think?
::)
Fun with Glow-in-the-Dark Pets and AnimalsQuoteIn 2003 scientists created the ultimate pet: genetically modified fish that glow in the dark. In future, more pets will be added to the list. Take a look at what may be possible...
http://www.glowingpets.com/
Enviropig(http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/167/cache/enviropig-cassie-pigs_16795_600x450.jpg)
Image Credit: National Geographic (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/03/100330-bacon-pigs-enviropig-dead-zones/)
Genetically altered "Enviropigs" can pass on greener genes to their offspring.
Gene-Altered "Enviropig" to Reduce Dead Zones?
March 30, 2010QuotePigs modified to excrete less phosphorus win limited approval in Canada.
Move over, bacon. Here comes something greener.
A genetically engineered pig recently approved for limited production in Canada makes urine and feces that contain up to 65 percent less phosphorous, officials have announced.
That could be good news for lakes, rivers, and ocean deltas, where phosphorous from animal waste can play a role in causing algal blooms. These outbursts of algae rapidly deplete the water's oxygen, creating vast dead zones for fish and other aquatic life.
Dubbed Enviropig, the genetically altered animal cleared a major hurdle last month, when the government-run Environment Canada approved the animal for production in controlled research settings.
Gene-Altered "Enviropig" to Reduce Dead Zones? - National Geographic (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/03/100330-bacon-pigs-enviropig-dead-zones/)QuoteThe Enviropig is the trademark for a genetically modified line of Yorkshire pigs with the capability to digest plant phosphorus more efficiently than ordinary unmodified pigs that was developed at the University of Guelph. Enviropigs produce the enzyme phytase in the salivary glands that is secreted in the saliva. When cereal grains are consumed, the phytase mixes with feed in the pig's mouth, and once swallowed the phytase is active in the acidic environment of the stomach degrading indigestible phytic acid with the release of phosphate that is readily digested by the pig.
Cereal grains including corn, soybean and barley contain 50 to 75% of their phosphorus in the form of phytic acid. Since the Enviropigs can now digest phytic acid, there is no need to include either a mineral phosphate supplement or commercially produced phytase to balance the diet. Because no phosphorus is added to the diet and there is digestion of the phytic acid, the manure is substantially reduced in phosphorus content, ranging from a 20 to 60% decrease depending upon the stage of growth and the diet consumed.
The benefits of the enviropig if commercialized include reduced feed cost and reduced phosphorus pollution as compared to the raising of ordinary pigs.
The Enviropig was developed by the introduction of a transgene construct composed of the promoter segment of the murine parotid secretory protein gene and the E. coli phytase gene. This construct was introduced into a fertilized embryo by pronuclear microinjection, and this embryo along with other embryos was surgically implanted into the reproductive tract of an estrous synchronized sow. After a 114 day gestation period, the sow farrowed and piglets born were checked for the presence of the transgene and for phytase enzyme activity in the saliva. Through breeding, this line of pigs is in the 7th generation, and the phytase trait is stably transmitted in a Mendelian fashion.
An editorial entitled "Genetically engineered meat close to your table" was published with online video and audio explaining the digestive capability of the Enviropig
SOURCE - WIKIPEDIA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enviropig)GM pigs: Green ham with your eggs? QuoteThe BBC's Jeremy Cooke has had rare access to some genetically modified Enviropigs in Canada
In a small complex of nondescript barns set in the flat, snow-covered fields of Ontario is a scientific project which, some argue, represents the new frontier of a technology that could benefit millions of people around the world.
For others what is happening here is weird, dangerous science.
The pigs they are breeding could be among the first genetically modified farm animal to be approved for human consumption.
The huge controversy over the introduction of genetically modified crops is well documented, but this seems to take that debate a step further, and into even more troubled waters.
"I am very worried and I think people around the world should be worried about what's happening in North America" - Lucy Sharratt Anti-GM campaigner
GM pigs: Green ham with your eggs? - BBC News (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12113859)Genetically engineered meal close to your tableQuoteThe pigs, pale pink and bristly, trot around the pen, stopping every so often to root in piles of bedding. They grunt and squeal and wag their short curlicue tails. All three like a hard scratch on the rump.
In almost every way, these broad-backed oinkers are just like the other Yorkshire pigs at the opposite end of the barn.
All except for the brackish green muck that oozes from their backsides. And the snippet of mouse DNA that has been slipped into their piggy chromosomes.
These are Enviropigs, developed by researchers at the University of Guelph to poop out more environmentally friendly waste. The trademarked pigs are just one of dozens of genetically engineered animals at research institutions around the world whose genes have been altered for human benefit. And, due to a recent move in the U.S., the Enviropig may be the first to arrive on your dinner plate.
Genetically engineered meal close to your table - Toronto Star (http://www.thestar.com/Comment/article/541710)
Scientists Produce Glow-in-the-Dark CatsMayo Clinic Teams with Glowing Cats Against AIDS, Other DiseasesQuoteThe Mayo team of physicians, virologists, veterinarians and gene therapy researchers, along with collaborators in Japan, sought to mimic the way evolution normally gives rise over vast time spans to protective protein versions. They devised a way to insert effective monkey versions of them into the cat genome.
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credit: Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic Teams with Glowing Cats (http://www.mayoclinic.org/news2011-rst/6434.html)Scientists Produce Glow-in-the-Dark CatsQuoteWhen scientists insert rhesus macaque genes plus jellyfish genes into unfertilized cat eggs, the cats that result post-fertilization are resistant to feline immunodeficiency virus, which causes feline AIDS. They also glow fluorescent green under "special" lights.
Scientists Produce Glow-in-the-Dark Cats (http://gawker.com/5839142/scientists-produce-glow+in+the+dark-cats)
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Green glow the cats - New Scientist (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20896-glowing-transgenic-cats-could-boost-aids-research.html)
Related Links:1. Glow cat: fluorescent green felines could help study of HIV (http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/sep/11/genetically-modified-glowing-cats)
2. Antiviral restriction factor transgenesis in the domestic cat (http://www.nature.com/nmeth/journal/v8/n10/full/nmeth.1703.html)
3. Glow-in-the-Dark Kittens Lend a Paw to AIDS Fight (http://www.livescience.com/15994-glow-dark-cats-aids-virus-research.html)
4. Glowing transgenic cats could boost AIDS research (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20896-glowing-transgenic-cats-could-boost-aids-research.html)
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Here one of the cats that was genetically engineered to have genes that code for a fluorescent jellyfish protein, which produces the green color, as well as an antiviral restriction factor from a rhesus macaque.CREDIT: Mayo ClinicView full size image (http://i.livescience.com/images/i/19851/original/glowing-cat.jpg?1315603505)
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A prolonged exposure taken in the darkroom, showing the greenish glow of a Motyxia millipede Credit: Paul Marek
Glow-in-the-dark millipede says 'stay away'
September 26, 2011
As night falls in certain mountain regions in California, a strange breed of creepy crawlies emerges from the soil: Millipedes that glow in the dark. The reason behind the glowing secret has stumped biologists until now. Paul Marek, a research associate in the UA's Department of Entomology and Center for Insect Science, and his team now provide the first evidence gained from field experiments of bioluminescence being used as a warning signal. They discovered that the nightly glow of millipedes belonging to the genus Motyxia helps the multi-legged invertebrates avoid attacks by predators.
The findings will be published in the Sept. 27 print edition of the journal Current Biology.
Biologists have discovered and described more than 12,000 species of millipedes, but the vast majority remains undiscovered and is thought to number around 100,000.
Just like all other millipedes, Motyxia are vegetarians, feeding mostly on decaying plant material, but in the course of adapting to a lifestyle primarily underground, they lost the ability to see.
"They spend the day burrowed beneath the soil and leaf material, but even though they are blind, they somehow sense when night falls, and come to the surface to forage and mate and to go about their millipede business," said Marek, who conducted this work under the NIH Postdoctoral Excellence in Research and Training program in the labs of Wendy Moore, an assistant professor of entomology and curator of the University of Arizona Insect Collection and Dan Papaj, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona.
"When they are disturbed, they ooze toxic cyanide and other foul-tasting chemicals from small pores running along the sides of their bodies as a defense mechanism," Marek explained. "Some millipede species that are active during the day display bright warning colors to announce their defenses to predators, but because Motyxia are out when it's dark, we hypothesized they use their greenish glow in place of a warning coloration."
Known as bioluminescence, the ability to glow in the dark is remarkably widespread in the animal kingdom. The most commonly known examples include fireflies, glowworms –which are in fact beetles – and animals inhabiting the pitch-black darkness of the deep oceans.
In some of those examples, bioluminescence is thought to help attract mates, send messages back and forth among members of the same species, or attract prey like in the case of the deep-sea angler fish, which dangles a glowing lure in front of its gaping mouth. Any small fish or other animal following the beacon's glow is gulped up as it approaches the invisible predator hiding in the darkness.
Marek and his coworkers hypothesized by using bioluminescence as a warning signal, luminescent millipedes would be attacked less than non-luminescent ones.
To test this hypothesis, Charity Hall, Marek's wife and a metalsmith, made a bronze cast of a millipede, which the team used to create molds to cast 300 fake millipedes in clay. Half of those they painted with an artificial, long-lasting glow-in-the-dark paint.
For the field experiment, the group took their clay millipede collection to Giant Sequoia National Monument in California, where they set them on the ground along a transect line, spaced five meters (16 feet) apart. Glowing and non-glowing individuals were distributed in random order to avoid sampling bias.
They then set out to collect real millipedes in the same general area.
"Motyxia are extremely common out there," Marek said. "If you sit there in a moonless night, the ground will look like the starry night sky up above, from all those millipedes glowing in the dark."
The live millipedes were divided into two groups: One was covered with paint to conceal their natural glow, the other was left untreated. Just like with the clay models, the real millipedes were distributed along a different transect line, with glowing and non-glowing animals in random order.
"To make sure they wouldn't walk out of the experiment, we used a fly-fishing knot gently tied around their back segments to tether them to the ground," Marek explained.
The next morning, the researchers went to collect the live and clay millipedes and assess the results.
"It was just – carnage," Marek said. "We were really surprised at the predation rate on these millipedes. Overall, about one-third of them – both real and fake – had been attacked."
Four times as many non-glowing millipedes showed evidence of attacks compared to their glowing peers. Similarly, in the clay group, non-luminescent models were attacked twice as often than those that emitted the glow.
To learn more about what kinds of predators had nibbled on – or devoured - the study subjects, Marek took the clay models and the remains of the real millipedes to the rodent collection at the California Academy of Sciences and matched the strike marks with the teeth in rodent skulls. Combining those data with observations at the study site, the team concluded that the grasshopper mouse (Onychomys torridus) is one of the millipedes' most likely predators.
"Remarkably, most of the predation marks were localized to the head, even in the clay models," Marek said. "So somehow those predators were able to tell the head from the tail end and go for the head first, which is a behavior typically seen in vertebrate predators."
To get a better idea of how the ability to glow in the dark evolved in millipedes, the team sequenced selected gene regions and estimated their evolutionary history to pinpoint the origin of bioluminescence in millipedes. Interestingly, a few of the species in the glowing genus Motyxia can switch their glow on and off. Marek and his co-workers measured glowing intensity of species in the genus using darkroom photography and traced the results on an evolutionary tree. They determined that the ability to glow evolved only once in millipedes and is restricted to a set of closely related species, all in the genus Motyxia.
"There are only three places on the planet where you can see glow-in-the-dark millipedes," Marek said. "The Santa Monica Mountains, the Tehachapi Mountains and the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, all of which are in California."
The precise biochemical mechanism by which the millipedes achieve this feat is up for future research.
"For now, all that we know is they use a different mechanism than fireflies or glowworms," said Marek, "which use an enzymatic reaction. The millipedes have a photoprotein that is similar to the Green Fluorescent Protein of the jellyfish Aequorea victoria. It is thought to be activated by calcium and energy-rich compounds in the cell to create the glow." [/color]
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-glow-in-the-dark-millipede.html (http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-09-glow-in-the-dark-millipede.html)
Glowing Scorpion Exoskeletons May Be Giant Eyes
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A scorpion's entire exoskeleton may act as one giant light receptor, a full-body proto-eye that detects shadows cast by moonlight and starlight.
That's still just a hypothesis, but it would help explain why they glow so brilliantly under ultraviolet light.
"It might be a sort of alarm that's always going off until the scorpion finds shelter," said biologist Douglas Gaffin of the University of Oklahoma. "Shade might turn down the alarm on that part of their body, so they preferentially move in that direction."
No matter their color in daylight, be it jet-black or translucent, ultraviolet light makes pigments embedded in their exoskeletons emit photons.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/12/scorpion-fluorescence/ (http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/12/scorpion-fluorescence/)