Scientists Use CRISPR to Condense a Million Years of Evolution Into Mere Months
mhajicek writes:
With its inquisitive eyes, furry snout, and lush pelt, the mouse-nicknamed Xiao Zhu, or Little Bamboo-nimbly perched on a bamboo stalk, striking a pretty pose for the camera. But this mouse doesn't exist in nature.
Made in a lab in Beijing, Xiao Zhu pushes the boundary of what's possible for genetic engineering and synthetic biology. Rather than harboring the usual 20 pairs of chromosomes, the mouse and its sibling cohorts only have 19 pairs. Two chunks of different chromosomes were artificially fused together in a daring experiment that asked: rather than tweaking individual DNA letters or multiple genes, can we retune an existing genomic playbook wholesale, shuffling massive blocks of genetic material around at the same time?
[...] Chromosome-level engineering is a completely different beast: it's like rearranging multiple paragraphs or shifting complete sections of an article and simultaneously hoping the changes add capabilities that can be passed onto the next generation.
[...] The new study, published in Science, made the technology possible for mice. The team artificially fused together chunks from mice chromosomes. One fused pair made from chromosomes four and five was able to support embryos that developed into healthy-if somewhat strangely behaved-mice. Remarkably, even with this tectonic shift to their normal genetics, the mice could reproduce and pass on their engineered genetic quirks to a second generation of offspring.
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