Fish, mosquitoes, cows … A lot of genetic tests are already underway on animals to improve the efficiency of livestock breeding and create new medicines.
Genetically modified plants are today grown on 175 million hectares worldwide (13% of all cropland). They also appear in Europe: since April 2015, the EU has allowed the import and sale of 17 types of GMOs.
Will it be the animals' turn soon? Although experiments in the field of animal genetic engineering have been carried out since the 1980s, it is still at the research stage. Be that as it may, now there are more and more examples of the concrete application of the knowledge gained. The last technological barriers that have prevented humans from trying any possible combination of genes are crumbling.
Belgian modified cow breed
The process is akin to selection
Man changes the genes of animals over the centuries. “We just called this practice selection,” explains geneticist Mark Westhusin. If you cross one breed of dog with another for several generations, the result will be a genetic cocktail that nature would hardly mix itself - this is a lapdog.
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New genetic tools are making changes more accurate and faster. “We change traits in a more targeted manner: we can tell exactly what we are creating,” explains Alison Van Ernam, a genome and biotechnologist at the University of California.
The first animal whose genome underwent changes in the laboratory was a mouse. In 1982, scientists were able to create a mouse whose body secreted significant amounts of growth hormones. And she reached the size of a small rat.
Transgenic milk treatment
Has the animal grown twice its normal size? This scientific discovery has something to interest agriculture. The twice as large salmon has already been bred (commercial name AquAdvantage) and may be the first genetically modified fish to be sold for human consumption. The company is only waiting for a signal from the American authorities.
In addition, animals can gain immunity from epidemics. For example, British geneticists bred a chicken that is not afraid of bird flu. In Brazil, genetically modified mosquitoes are used to fight dengue fever.
Even more interesting, milk from transgenic animals has endless possibilities. The cows have already been changed for maternal and hypoallergenic milk (for those with lactose intolerance). In the future, it will be possible to obtain milk with human antibodies to fight melanoma.
American company GTC Biotherapeutics has bred goats whose milk contains antithrombotic substances: dubbed ATryn, it prevents blood clots.
There are many variants of gene crossing, and some of them are quite unusual: after testing on goats, the bacteria were altered to make webs. This material (considered the most durable in the world) would allow for the creation of ultra-effective bulletproof vests and medical fabrics.
Zebra fish also got the DNA of the glowing jellyfish. The purpose of the experiment: to make them glow in the presence of certain toxins to detect water pollution.
Be that as it may, GloFish gained more success in Americans' aquariums, becoming the first genetically modified pet.
Genetic scalpels
Scientists are moving further and further in decoding the genome. It is about understanding how a particular gene determines the characteristics of a species. Progress in genetics has accelerated even more with the discovery of new effective tools, primarily Cas9.
The Cas9 technique was "accidentally" discovered by scientists Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Dudnoy during experiments on viruses. Without going into details, it allows you to find a specific piece of DNA and cut it out. When adding other material, it also makes it possible to replace it with a different piece of DNA.
According to Jennifer Doudna, this was a big step forward:
"If in the past technology was like a blacksmith's hammer, now we are working with the genome with molecular scalpels."
Rebirth of mammoths and dinosaurs
With such technologies in hand, some scientists are going to revive the extinct species or even create new ones.
In theory, scientists already understand how it would be possible to bring back to life a woolly mammoth that disappeared 10 thousand years ago: thanks to tissues and pieces of teeth found in the ice, they managed to almost completely recreate its genome. All that remains is to change the elephant's genes or to implant its DNA into the elephant's egg, so that a small mammoth will be born.
What about dinosaurs? Since the chicken is a descendant of some of them, you just need to reverse the process … Scientists have already done this and were able to reactivate the ancient "dinosaur" genes of the chicken.
Hairless modified chickens
From under the genetic scalpel, mythical or even absolutely fantastic creatures could emerge. American paleontologist Jack Horner talked about the possibility of creating a unicorn.
Be that as it may, breeding animals of unusual sizes (a duck the size of a horse or a horse the size of a duck) is not a trivial task: growth is determined by hundreds of genes. The same goes for winged pigs. Scientists have not seen six-limbed vertebrates and have no idea what their genetic code would look like.
How far can you go?
But where can such manipulations with the genome lead? Science fiction, in its own way, has repeatedly warned humanity about the dangers of such experiments. Just remember this quote from Jurassic Park:
“Our scientists were so focused on what they could do that they didn't even think if they were entitled to it.”
Bizarre genetics aside, transgenic changes to animals to improve quality and productivity could ensure food security around the world. But what would be the long-term consequences? Environmental and health risks? The AquAdvantage salmon hasn't even appeared on our plates yet, but it is already raising concerns about "genetic contamination."
While no one can answer these questions yet, it is high time for us to outline the ethical limits: as it became known, Chinese scientists began to change the human genome.