Transgenic monkeys pass on glow in the dark gene to offspring

A team of Japanese scientists have genetically modified monkeys whose hair, skin and blood glow when exposed to UV light and who have passed on this gene to their offspring, making them the first transgenic animals to do so.

The discovery was made by a team of scientists led by Erika Sasaki from the Central Institute of Experimental Animals and Professor Hideyuki Okano of the Keio University School of Medicine.

The team used viral DNA to integrate a fluorescent jellyfish gene for green fluorescent protein (GFP) into the common marmoset causing them to glow green. The researchers hope that the transgenic marmosets can one day be breed to study infectious human diseases, immunology and neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease.

Dr Kathie Raphael, a lecturer in Genetics at the University of Sydney explains how it could work saying, “If you want to study motor-neurone disease or Parkinson's disease, and you have a candidate gene that you believe causes the disease, then you introduce that gene into the monkey and…observe the effect that it has… if it causes the types of symptoms that it does in humans… then you've got a model to study the disease and try treatments."

link:

http://livenews.com.au/rss-link/breakthrough-as-glowing-monkeys-have-glowinthedark-babies/2009/5/28/208010


original research published in science journal Nature




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