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This is a-mewsing.
(Photo Credit: Gyeongsang National University)
When Genetic Savings and Clone shut their doors it looked like wishful cat owners were going to be out of luck and short of kittens. Never fear, the South Korean scientists at Gyeongsang National University have come to the rescue. I couldn't find all the details in the news articles but it appears that they inserted a gene for red fluorescent protein into a somatic cell from a cat, transplanted the cell into an egg cell, put the egg into a female cat's womb and a few weeks later, voila!, lovely white Angora cats that glow in the presence of a black light.
The only question now is how long will be before you can buy a glowing cat to match your fish?
Life Science
Medicine & Health
Comments
I am waiting for the LOLcats version...
Posted by: Coturnix | December 12, 2007 10:18 PM
IM IN UR GLO-LITE
...
SHIFTEN UR SPEKTRA
Posted by: Anon | December 12, 2007 11:27 PM
LOL! Well, it had to happen sooner or later. I read a blog where they said they thought a human had been or soon would be cloned. What is number 2 on everybody's list? Why a glowing cat of course! LOL!
Dave Briggs :~)
Posted by: Dave Briggs | December 13, 2007 7:31 AM
the ministry said in a statement.
"The ability to produce cloned cats with the manipulated genes is significant as it could be used for developing treatments for genetic diseases and for reproducing model (cloned) animals suffering from the same diseases as humans,"
BS detector just went through the roof. and we wonder why public has unreasonable expectations of science, technology and what it can do (and how fast)
Posted by: randy | December 13, 2007 8:03 AM
Coturnix -- YOURS.
http://flickr.com/photos/colinmcmillen/2106443443/
Posted by: Colin M | December 13, 2007 10:39 AM
That's great Colin! It just makes me glow!
Posted by: Sandra Porter | December 13, 2007 10:45 AM
As amusing as this is, sadly, it is merely ammunition for the Rage Boys at the Discovery Institute. This sort of stuff makes genetic research look like the mad science movies of the years gone by. Is it any wonder scientists are tagged with the Rodney Dangerfield label - can't get no respect.
Posted by: Nebularry | December 13, 2007 10:59 AM
Oh Nebularry, I don't think we're likely to make turn people turn to creationism by showing them that science is fun.
And, speaking of fun, yes, there is another glowing LOL cat besides the picture that Colin posted..
Posted by: Sandra Porter | December 13, 2007 11:29 AM
Is there any downside to this in terms of quality of life for the cats?
Posted by: apy | December 13, 2007 12:39 PM
Off-hand, I'd be surprised if this protein had any effect on the cat's quality of life, but I don't really know for certain.
I do know that GFP is made, naturally, by many marine animals like jellyfish and coral. GFP has been used in many animal studies without apparent harm to the animals, so far as I know. The animals have included mice, rabbits, and fish.
If anything, I would guess that the cats biggest complaint about GFP would be the discomfort of having strange people shining ultraviolet lights on them to make them glow.
Posted by: Sandra Porter | December 13, 2007 12:56 PM
Hmm. Glow in the dark kittehs. May be utile to prevent night-time feline road-pizzas. Too bad they glow only in blacklight.
I am NOT a scientist. I am a dreaded Liberal Arts major. I hope I am not infringing or diluting the critical sciency stuff on yer web page.
Posted by: Zee | December 13, 2007 5:15 PM
Hey Zee,
Liberal Arts majors are no problem and hardly dreaded. Don't worry about diluting critical sciency stuff, science is life and life is science.
I was disappointed in the blacklight requirement, too. I'm always tripping on cats when I walk around in the dark.
Posted by: Sandra Porter | December 13, 2007 5:28 PM
Can someone do this with a Chihuahua?
Posted by: Fernando Magyar | December 13, 2007 7:44 PM
Implanted in mammals, these genes express most strongly in the genitals. Green junk, sounds like something from Burroughs.
Posted by: Tonsure Wimple | December 14, 2007 2:51 AM
"IM IN UR GLO-LITE
SHIFTEN UR SPEKTRA"
And what a huge shift it is. What kind of fluorescent protein can be excited with UV to fluoresce in the red?
Posted by: Martijn ter Haar | December 15, 2007 10:21 AM
Martijn: the protein is a mutant version of green fluorescent protein. Researchers have made many different versions of this protein that fluoresce in lots of different colors.
Posted by: Sandra Porter | December 15, 2007 11:41 AM
Yes, I know, I work a lot with fluorescent proteins, that's why I found it strange. Usually we excite RFPs with 548 nm (check table 1 on this page). As you can see the spectral shift of all these proteins is in the 20-30 nm range. 548 nm is several hunderd nanometres away from UV. The fact that the normal white cats light up green strengthens my believe that the cats are not under a UV-lamp, but under a green one with emission around 548 nm.
Posted by: Martijn ter Haar | December 15, 2007 3:09 PM
Blacklight kitty. Seems more of a '60s fad--lava lights and the like. 'course they've come back as well. What's old is new!
Posted by: scott | December 15, 2007 9:49 PM
Can rodents and small birds see into the ultraviolet? If so, I would imagine that a fluorescent cat would be at a disadvantage as a mouser.
Also, they're liable to attract bees.
Posted by: HP | December 15, 2007 11:47 PM
HP misses the physics. The engineered cat absorbs UV: emits visible light. Presumably, this leaves the cat even darker in UV than it otherwise would be, so it has no extra problem with bees. Mice and birds definitely do see in the visible (to us) portion of the spectrum, but unless the cat is particularly bright, this will have little effect on its hunting.
Posted by: Dangerous Dan | December 16, 2007 5:49 PM
We cats would prefer fearless, glow-in-the dark mousies, please.
Posted by: Fluffy | December 23, 2007 8:24 PM
I am amazed to see that this is actually possible, and guess how wonderful they will look in the dark. Can be quite spooky if a lot of them are walking together in a grave yard at night time.
Posted by: Emoticon Facebook|Emoticons Facebook | August 15, 2011 3:44 PM