Glowing Monkeys Make More Glowing Monkeys the Old-Fashioned Way

~cue kinky music~

Glowing Monkeys Make More Glowing Monkeys the Old-Fashioned Way

The first genetically modified primates that can pass their modifications to their offpsring have been created by Japanese scientists.

The marmosets, pictured above, express a green fluorescent protein in their skin. The gene for producing the glow was delivered to the first marmoset embryos via a modified virus. But now that modification method could become unnecessary. One male marmoset, number 666, fathered a child (pictured at right) that also contained the transgenes.

~abrupt stop to music~

Number 666? They couldn't give a glowing reproducing monkey a better name?
Don't they know this is destined to make the news? 6-6-6, REALLY?

“The birth of this transgenic marmoset baby is undoubtedly a milestone,” developmental biologists Gerald Schatten and Shoukhrat Mitalipov at the Pittsburgh Development Center and Oregon Stem Cell Center, respectively wrote in a commentary accompanying the study Thursday in Nature. “The cumbersome and often frustrating process of making a transgenic animal from scratch need now only occur with founder animals.”

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you, The (adorable) BEASTS!

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/1637a5d3d11c.jpg[/atsimg]

Why don't the figure out something useful, like making a urine stream glow, so guys don't need a light to aim?

Seriously, though, genetically modifying animals with viruses, HELLO!!
What are these idiots thinking? And handling them with nothing but rubber gloves?
These cute little creatures still have teeth and saliva.

reply to post by reticledc


Yes but then the initial stream is at a loss, they did do a study in public urinals that when a bullseye mark is placed in a urinal there are less "m(e/i)sses".

You think they could do something other then what they did in "Honey I shrunk the kids", type movie.

I'm sure if they spent enough time studying the lizards that can grow back tails they could find a way for that to be beneficial to us!

[edit on 27-5-2009 by Republican08]

So, the antiChrist turns out to be a green glowing marmoset ?

Maybe it's a metaphor.

(Is it just me or is it fun to say "Green, glowing, marmoset" ? )

666? ITS THE DEVIL MONKEY!

The seals of the apakiclypse are opening right now!

I was joking really.
I am all for the advancement of science and medicine, but this is dangerous ground we tread when we use viral and retro viral modifications. Viruses mutate, often without check.
And a tiny marmoset is nothing like the system of a human.
Cool little glowing creatures though. Can you imagine a jungle full of them?
Easy for predatory animals to find them, so I guess the would not last too long.
Unless continued ingestion produced the same effect on predatory animals. Then I would say, you could see them coming from a mile away.

Evolution in action once again. But instead of naturally obtaining a feature "like glowing" it was artificially created. It goes to show you that if several creatures were to adapt to their environment by mutating, it would eventually become a permanent feature after a few generations! Awesome!

Originally posted by reticledc
Why don't the figure out something useful, like making a urine stream glow, so guys don't need a light to aim?

Seriously, though, genetically modifying animals with viruses, HELLO!!
What are these idiots thinking? And handling them with nothing but rubber gloves?
These cute little creatures still have teeth and saliva.

Studying gene transfer/recombinant DNA is very useful for future applications (think gene therapy). As for not doing it with virus, what else would you do it with? Virus are perfect for transferring stuff. Basically what you need to do is to insert the right stuff into its genome and remove all the unnecessary parts. What could possibly go wrong

[edit on 28-5-2009 by rhinoceros]

Those are adorable little glowy virus spreaders aren't they? If we gotta go then at least we go out with an AWWWWW!

[edit on 28-5-2009 by DaMod]

Congratulations! These monkeys can now never survive in the wild. They are a glow in the dark meal for night predators.