A list of 9 genetically modified animals created by science. These animals may sound to you to come straight out of a science fiction movie or from a cartoonist’s imagination. But the truth is they have been created by scientists and researchers laboring in their labs to find out solutions to our everyday problems…
These mosquitoes are created for sudden and quick death. These mosquitoes are released to mate with the females which in turn release the lethal genes from the males mosquitos and are transferred to the females which kills them or kills the young ones in her, so that they can’t reproduce. Scientists at British bio-tech company claims that it can control the spread of the dengue fever “It involves irradiating male insects, causing mutations that make them sterile” claims the company.
2 GloFish
Glofish is a genetically modified zebrafish which glows in dark. The fish has been ccomes in bright fluorescent colours like red, orange and green.
It all started in 1999 when Dr. Zhiyuan Gong and his colleagues were working on a fluorescent protein which was originally extracted from a jellyfish. They inserted the gene into a zebrafish embryo and allowed it to integrate into zebrafish genome. These fish were created trying to create a fish(fluorescent) that can detect pollution by fluorescing in the presence of environmental toxin. These fish absorbs light and then re-emit it, which makes them look like they are glowing. GLofish the first genetically modified animal to be available as a pet.
Dolly the Sheep is the first cloned mammal created from a single microscopic cell from a single parent. Dolly was created in 1996 and lived until 2003 where she died of a lung cancer which is common in older sheeps. She was cloned at the Roslin Institute in Midlothian, Scotland by Ian Wilmut and his colleagues. Normally off-springs are a result of interaction of sex cells but in case of dolly’s birth, sex cells were not involved she was created using the process of nucleus transfer. Dolly was fertile and produced 6 lambs in total till her death.
The Vacanti Mouse created in 1995 by Dr. Charles Vacanti, at the University of Massachusetts was a laboratory mouse which had a human ear grown at its back. The ear was actually made by seeding cow cartilage cells into a biodegradable ear-shaped mold.It was created to show that the transplantation of fabricated cartilage structures into human body is possible.
The magnificent see-through frog was created to silence the world against dissection of the animals. This see-through frog does not require dissection to see its organs, blood vessels and eggs. We can see how organs grows, how cancer spreads through the skin of the frog. It truly a miracle in genetic engineering.
A cloned beagle from South Korea popularly called Ruppy, which means Ruby the puppy, glows under ultraviolet light. Ruppy was created by Byeong-Chun Lee. Ruppy was cloned by using viral transfection of fibroblasts cells with a protein, forming a red fluorescent gene. Now, that a pet i would love to have.
A company called Aresa Biodetection from Copenhagen has created a plant which can come handy in combat areas. These plants can actually detect land mines buried under the ground. Whenever flowers from the plant hit nitrogen dioxide which will reach the land mines buried under the ground the plant will change it’s color to red.
A genetically modified pig has been created for making the environment a little less polluted and safe to live in. The pig genetically modified pig produces 65% less phosphorus in its feces.
