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Genetically-Modified 'Surrogate Hens' Could Lay Eggs of Rare Chicken Breeds, Scientists Say (theguardian.com)
In an effort to preserve rare varieties of chicken breeds and diversify the chicken gene pool, scientists at the University of Edinburgh's Roslin Institute have come up with a plan to breed genetically-modified chickens designed to act as surrogates that would be capable of laying eggs from any rare breed. Such rare breeds include the Nankin, Scots Dumpy and Sicilian Buttercup. The Guardian reports: The surrogacy technique, which places a new, mind-bending twist on the classic chicken or egg question, involves first genetically engineering hens to be sterile. This is done by deleting a gene, called DDX4, that is required for the development of primordial follicles (the precursors to eggs) meaning that the surrogate hens will never lay eggs that are biologically their own. The next step will be to transplant follicles from rare birds into the surrogate (this is done before the surrogate chick is hatched from its own egg), meaning it would go on to lay eggs belonging to entirely different breeds of chicken. Given that the hens would also need to be artificially inseminated with sperm from the same rare variety, the approach may appear unnecessarily convoluted. Why not just breed the rare birds the normal way? The scientists' ultimate goal is to create a gene bank of chicken breeds preserved for posterity, and since primordial follicles can be frozen efficiently, while eggs cannot, the surrogacy technique serves an essential work-around. Mike McGrew, who is leading the project and is the first author on a paper on the work published this week in the journal Development, predicts that the surrogates will be able to lay eggs from any breed, including chicken's wild predecessor, the red junglefowl, but he is doubtful about whether it will work efficiently across species -- it is not likely that the surrogate hens will be giving birth to eagle chicks, for instance. Richard Broad, a field officer for the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, agreed that rare chickens could be a source of valuable genetic variation, potentially carrying variants that would provide resistance against new forms of avian flu. At present, the team is focused on chicken breeds, but expects the technique to work to preserve rare varieties of ducks, geese and quail.
I always said the egg came first!
If a chicken can lay a surrogate egg, so can an indo-chimp on H1B. Called anchor chimp.
"...it is not likely that the surrogate hens will be giving birth to eagle chicks..." - I know for a fact that this is impossible since birds do not give birth!
Just sayin'.
Plan to exterminate all wildlife may proceed.
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realkiwi
I prefer my chicken well done
How about 'chicken breeds preserved so chicken actually tastes like chicken again'? I'm an old fart, and chicken tastes vastly more bland than it did when I was a kid. And no, it's not just the 'everything was better back then' syndrome. When I was in Guyana I ate meat from fully-grown chickens that weren't all that much bigger than just the breasts of the chickens we get here, and its flavour took me back to the chicken I used to eat as a kid.
The chickens we buy in supermarkets have been bred to attain maximum weight in the minimum amount of time possible; they have also been bred to have a higher survival rate during transport, and to be more disease resistant. With these genetic alterations, they just taste bland - rather like most tomatoes today, and for much the same reasons.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
This is going to do wonders to prevent the extinction of the chocobos! I can't wait to up the population and finally breed a black chocobo! ;)
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
I intentionally avoid headlines that contain the word 'could'. Other people aren't nearly as fascinated with your speculative work as you grad students are or seem to think others should be. We are sorta past all that at this point in our lives. I know it's 'new to you', but we discovered our belly buttons many, many years ago. Staring at them gets real boring after awhile, and yours aren't so unique we are going to waste our time on them, either. NEWSFLASH: There are real problems to be tackled in life.
I can't make head or tail of this 'convoluted workaround'
1. Take an expensive sterile chicken. (since they're sterile, you can't breed them, you have to buy them)
2. Kill an expensive, rare chicken to get the follicles.
3. Put those follicles into the expensive sterile chicken.
4. Get rare chicks to kill and take follicles to freeze.
The only thing that i can think of is that the expensive, sterile chicken can lay 400 eggs a year and the rare chicken only a dozen or so.
Can they lay progressive eggs directly into boiling water ? Count to 3-min and remove them ?? Eat the yoke ???