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Taiwan Breeds Transgenic, Fluorescent Green Pigs
ScentCone writes "Transgenic pigs (and other critters) are valuable research tools because of their utility in studying human diseases. Tracking changes in some developing tissues is going to be easier, say a Taiwanese team that has introduced fluorescent, green proteins into the breeding. Said one of the researchers: 'There are partially fluorescent green pigs elsewhere, but ours are the only ones in the world that are green from inside out. Even their hearts and internal organs are green.' Do you like green eggs and ham?"
How would you like to swing on a star,
Carry moonbeans home in a jar,
You could be better off than you are,
You could be a fluorescent green pig!
Now the new pig is an animal with a bright green hide
His wings are powerful and wide!
He flies majestically through the skies
'Cause know genetic engineering risks are a pack of lies!
So if PETA and Greenpeace are your gigs,
You may be bombed a flying green pigs!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
And while you are creating freaks o' nature, please sign my future offspring up for a pair of wings, skin with chlorophyll, and night vision.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
They're keeping all the other animals in the barn awake!
Government's view of the economy: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving,regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it.
You mean those animals i see after my 10th tequila are real?
Furthermore, after reading the two links, I'm not exactly clear on what the benefit is when you turn them green. I assume it's so you can tell who's mated with the new pigs because the transgenic coloration will be present in the offspring?
From the article:Four out of 265 is a pretty low rate.
I wonder how this will affect their ability to survive in nature and I also wonder if the Polynesian Islands will one day be covered with rainbow colored pigs left there by researchers trying to do stem cell research.
Researcher 1: "Has he got any orange on him?"
Researcher 2: "Nope but he's got red, green and purple all about him."
Researcher 1: "Then he's not one a carrier."
Researcher 2: "That's one ugly pig though." *looks in his Audubon Society guide* "According to his colors, he's got Alzheimer's genes, cancer genes and is extremely susceptible to syphilis...poor bastard."
My work here is dung.
and green ham. Sam I am.
Just doesn't have the same ring to it, does it? Of course St. Patrick's Day breakfast could get a bit easier tho'...
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
for what they are really trying to do--create plaid monkeys.
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
Buddy, I have some sad news for you:
You post on slashdot.
Obligatory Soundbite Catchphrase
"Don't eat no red meat? No, don't eat no green meat."
--------------------- Eddie Liu.
This is not the Kermit and Miss Piggy sex tape you were looking for.
I saw a pig upon a stair,
A verdant pig that wasn't there,
It wasn't there again today,
Gee, I wish he'd go away.
I never saw a glowing pig,
I never hope to be one,
But I'll tell you this right now,
I'd rather see than be one.
What this proves is that it is possible to induce protein induction on all major organs in animals. This same technique could in theory be used to express self-surface proteins on an animal that can be grow in 1-2 years. These organs could then be harvested and used for human transplants. By having self-proteins the body won't rejected the transplant and there would be a relatively cheap and practical supply of usable organs.
I dunno, but if the pigs start laying eggs, worry!
..such as Chasm City etc described a hybrid between pigs and humans, usually belonging to the lowest ranks of society.
:)
Who knows, maybe his description was just a few hundred years early
I hope that fluorescence doesn't last long.
It lasts as long as they live. The green isn't just a dye or ink, it's the actual color of their skin! Their skin _is_ green, it's not dyed green.
-Jesse
Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
The problem is that there aren't many natural predators for wild pigs.
... proving quite the opponent to any respectable animal.
... well, the football term might be "strip the ball."
Since Hernando de Soto brought pigs to the New World, wild boars were used up through the colonies to destroy Native American crops. Unfortunately, there wasn't much to kill these pigs. Feral pigs are quite muscular and large
Ever had to castrate a full grown boar? I have, and it's not easy, four grown men to hold it down and one to
My work here is dung.
So you're telling me that the pigs' blood is green, too? Doesn't that make them Vulcan?
Anything can be made to fly, given sufficient thrust! Just strap a couple JATO units on that porker and stand back... far, far, far back.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Green BACON. Mmm, bacon.
Actually, this could give rise to a new kind of "free range" livestock, where you could just let them wander wherever you want and then when you need to round them up you use a UV spotlight and you can see them almost anywhere. Of course, they would be Genetically Engineered Free Range, which might be the juxtaposition that kills the deal.
Cool! Amazing Toys.
Sounds like just the perfect thing you'd need to play a great practical joke with on your stoner roommate. Wait until they're really high, turn on all the black lights, and then shuffle in a few of the green pigs.
If big boobed women work at Hooters do one legged women work at IHOP?
Actually, Spam is a naturally occuring substance, found all over North America, but particularly concentrated in the American heartland states.
It is from the legendary Pink Spam Mines of Kansas is where the greatest yields used to be from. That was until the mega-corporate spam concerns bought out all the independent mines or just put them out of business.
My father was one of the last of the hearty breed of Spammers (not the same spammers we talk about today). I remember as a kid he'd come home after work, covered in pink chunks and dripping with gelatinous goo - he used to set down his hardhat on our porch, where every day it was ilicked clean by my puppy Max.
For some reason, Max died an early death.
If the process could be adapted to work on developing cells and attach only to cancer cells it could help speed detection and make it easier to see cancerous cells during surgery. The obvious benefit would be with melonomia. If after a treatment cancerous moles would change color it'd make detection possible without biopsies and help see if it was spreading.
No. Unless you're referring to what the summary should have said in reference to the article. But then yI would point out that "Eggs and ham" is a unit, making "green eggs and ham" consist of both green eggs and green ham as shown on the cover illustration of the book.
Sony ha
"Transgenic pigs (and other critters) are valuable research tools because of their utility in studying human diseases."
Where I live we've had glowing pigs since 1979. In fact, most everything around here glows.
What's really neat is at night you don't need to turn the lights on around the house to see. Your natural bodily glow provides enough light for you to see. Even better, if you get up in the middle of the night you never have to worry about stepping on your cat or dog because you can easily see them.
However, it should be noted that image of glowing bodies under the covers can be quite disturbing for the uninitiated so the orgies have to be kept to a minimum.
Yes, I survived Three Mile Island. Gallows humor is what keeps me going.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Pork....the other green meat.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
that the author of the BBC article is Chris Hogg?
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
I can't tell you the number of times that I have mislaid my pig's hearts in the dark. Now I'll never need to do my "abomination against $DEITY" experiments with the light on again.
*mwhahah*
I tried to warn you but you wouldn't listen!
Fight Frist Psoting!
Browse Slashdot with 'Newest First'!
I've been on a hobby farm where there were a couple of tame sows -- I'm surprised that even four men could hold down an irate, full grown boar. No tranquilizer?
This article from the BBC has pictures.
They appear to glow in the dark!
I think you're joking, but just to be on the safe side (there's got to be at least one A.C> out there who believes this!):
As I understand it, they're fluorescent, not chemoluminescent. In other words, they require an external stimulus (e.g. a UV light) to generate the glowing effect. In a completely dark room, they glow no more than your average, garden-variety pig does.
Smell that? You smell that? Burning karma, son. Nothing in the world smells like that...
Homer: Wait a minute wait a minute wait a minute. Lisa honey, are you
saying you're *never* going to eat any animal again? What about
bacon?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Ham?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Pork chops?
Lisa: Dad! Those all come from the same animal!
Homer: Yeah, right Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal.
Just by leaving meat in your fridge for long enough..
These transgenic animals are nothing new -- transgenics (even the fluorescent kind) have been around for many years, and are a critical tool for elucidating basic mechanisms in biology. Pigs, like mice, worms, yeast, bacteria, etc., are model organisms -- their underlying cell biology is so generic, that understanding it is immensely useful for many pure research and biomedical purposes.
The researchers involved in this study were not out to make some freak of nature -- they used a very straightforward line of reasoning to make these transgenics. By labelling the entire animal, one can trace any part of the animal when it is transplanted into an unlabelled animal. For example, researchers could study what happens with organ transplant: how do the donor organs interact with the receipient body? Does it integrate well or not? More cutting-edge research could involve tracing individual tissues and cells, such as stem cells and neurons and cardiac cells. Where do the cells migrate? Do they localize properly (i.e. do cardiac cells stay where they should at the heart)? Do stem cells that were introduced for a particular damage (i.e. brain damage) actually migrate to the brain and function where they should?
As stated in the article, many others have done similar studies with mice, monkeys, etc while labelling specific tissues. These researchers have done it with a pig, and while labelling every cell in the pig. I don't personally believe this is novel from a research standpoint, but I think it is a valuable tool continue research in mammalian biology. I certainly don't think it's something to be feared, hated, and maligned as some here have suggested.
At what percent of remaing human genes does a creature retain its civil rights?
I certainly don't claim to be an expert in genetics, but I don't think there is such a thing as a "human gene". It's like saying something is made of "car factory bricks". The researchers aren't at fault here, it's your understanding of animal genetics.
AccountKiller
Imagine that you are a biotech company, and you've successfully created a line of engineered pigs. Maybe they are suitable for organ transplantation into humans, maybe they eat lawyers and sh*t nickles... they're really valuable for whatever reason. How do you keep somebody from just hijacking a shipment of your WonderPigs(tm) and claiming they invented an unrelated line of pigs that do the same thing as yours?
Easy! Create an artificial gene that makes a do-nothing protein with a novel, specific, unique sequence that you select. Insert that gene along with the action gene cluster (EatLawyer + ShtNickles) and the marker gene (Green Fluorescent Protein). Then, everytime the pig's cells express the action genes, they also express the marker (GFP) and your non-obvious marker protein.
When their SuperPigs(tm) hit the marketplace two years after your WonderPigs(tm), you just take a tissue sample and look for the telltale protein. Even if they silcenced the GFP and replaced it with Red, Yellow or Magenta, they wouldn't know to look for your hidden gene. You could even set it up so that it's only expressed under certain conditions, like an Easter Egg. That particular proetin sequence isn't found in nature, so if it's there, this must be a pirated pig.
It's like the funny pictures that chip manufacturers hide on processing chips... copy this layout and we'll know where to look for our signature.
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them. - Mark Twain
The pigs are just an excuse. Once the countryside is ravaged by fluorescent green pigs, Monsanto will make billions selling stealthy black velociraptors to hunt them.
At least, that's their plan.
That's "Mr. Soulless Automaton" to you, Bub.
I think everyone assumed that there were type I or II or III RNApol promoters tht would function in all organisms, so there was no real need to do the exp.
As to harvesting transgenic organs for transplant into humans, it is not enough to add necessary antigens, you have to remove unwanted antigens as well.
this is a little more tricky.
You also have to demonstrate that the tissue does not contain any porcine viruses that can jump to humans; proving a negative is often a little tedious
-End World Hunger -Find a cure for Cancer -Intelligent Design? -Are we alone? -Flourescent pigs Phew! Glad that one's off the list!
I will forever be a student.
Maybe you should've read the caption under the picture:
When lit up in the dark, the pigs glow green
"If the ham is green, how are we supposed to spot this stuff?"
We have to genetically modify the little green worms to be bright red, of course.