Lab mice's gene upgrade gives them a full-color world

Lab mice's gene upgrade gives them a full-color world

It enhances debate on human evolution, and could aid color blindness.

By WASHINGTON POST
Published March 26, 2007

WASHINGTON - Providing a kaleidoscopic upgrade to creatures that are largely color-blind, scientists have endowed mice with a human gene that allows the rodents to see the world in full Technicolor splendor.

The advance, which relied on imaginative tests to confirm that the mice can perceive all the hues that people see, helps resolve a long-standing debate about how color vision arose in human ancestors tens of millions of years ago. That seminal event brought a host of practical advantages, such as the ability to spot ripe fruit, and unveiled a host of new aesthetic pleasures - autumn foliage, magenta sunsets and the blush of a potential mate, among them.

The work also points to the possibility of curing some of the millions of color-blind Americans - and even enhancing the vision of healthy people, allowing them to experience a richer palette than is possible with standard-issue eyes...continues sptimes.com

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[edit on 26-3-2007 by sanctum]

[edit on 26-3-2007 by sanctum]

My question is mice going to form human brain via human retinal cells enabling him to trichromatic color vision?

Transfer Human Retinal Stem Cells
to Nonhumans

• Retinal stem cells transplanted to nonhuman host
- would not form functioning human brain
- would only integrate with host’s basic
neurological functions (i.e. sensation of light via
photoreceptors)
- would not affect host brain’s ability to interpret
response to light

Karpowicz, Cohen, & van der Kooy, Nat
Med 10, 331-335 (2004).

"What we are looking at in these mice is the same evolutionary event that happened in one of the distant ancestors of all primates and that led ultimately to the trichromatic color vision that we now enjoy."

"And if you think about it, that's a very good way to build a brain, so that even a small evolutionary tweak can immediately give you an advantage," Nathans said. They snipped the red-detecting gene from human retinal cells and inserted it into mouse embryos."


newsfeedresearcher.com...

* good article:
www.futurepundit.com...

I sometimes in my darker moments suspect that the sigularity will consist of lab rats taking over the universe, due to regulation delaying human trials of all the various treatments and augmentations.

[edit on 26-3-2007 by blue bird]

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[edit on 26/3/07 by masqua]