A glow in the dark pig has given birth to more glow in the dark pigs.
Fluorescent Chinese pig passes on trait to offspring from PhysOrg.com
A pig genetically modified in China to make it glow has given birth to fluorescent piglets, proving such changes can be inherited, state media said Wednesday.
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The pigs were originally modified (to glow) using somatic cell nuclear transfer.It is not entirely clear to me how the gene got into the gametes. It also appears that the distribution of the gene in the offspring is not exactly the same as in the parent, suggesting something interesting going on with respect to development.
I await a more detailed description of the finding!
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The more important question: can we get glow in the dark pork chops now? I can see trendy restaurants jumping on this bandwagon.
Somatic cell nuclear transfer means that an egg cell has its nuclear material replaced with the nucleus of a somatic cell. It is then given a shock that stimulates it to reprogram the nuclear material to that of an egg nucleus and it then begins to divide to become a blastocyst. Gametes are derived from tissues originating from blastocyst cells so there should be no real surprise that the resultant animal produces gametes containing the gene. I would presume the distribution of the gene in the fluorescent piglets was the same as the parent - although the copy number and expression may be different since the fluorescent sow was mated with a non fluorescent boar.