by Playfuls Staff |
29th December 2006
According to Chinese Zodiac, Year of 2007 is a Year of the Pig which begins on February 18, 2007 and ends on February 6, 2008. So they probably thought at celebrating it with some… green pigs that glow in the dark.[more]
Chinese scientists claim they have successfully bred partially green pigs. Their endeavor is thought to have implications in the famous stem cell research, which could help millions of people recover from serious illnesses or even regain their severed limbs.
Genetically modified pigs are not very new though; fluorescent green pigs were first bred by a group of researchers led by Prof. Wu Shinn-Chih at the Department of Animal Science and Technology at National Taiwan University, announcing the results of the experiment in January 2006.
The scientists from Taiwan University's say that although the pigs glow, they are otherwise no different from any others.
The transgenic pigs were created by adding DNA from fluorescent jellyfish to pig embryos which were then implanted. The pigs glow green in the dark, and have clearly green-tinged skin and eyes in daylight.
Encouraged and motivated by their Taiwanese colleagues, the Chinese scientists from the Northeast Agricultural University in Harbin have reported the successful breeding of "partially green fluorescent pigs".
Liu Zhonghua, of the university's College of Life Sciences said that "the mouth, trotters and tongue of the pigs are green under ultraviolet light."
Genetic material from jellyfish was injected into the womb of a sow which gave birth to the three pigs 114 days later in Harbin, he said.
In the dark, if you shine a blue light on the pigs, they begin to glow torch-light bright.
The scientists will use the transgenic pigs to study human disease. Because the pig's genetic material encodes a protein that shows up as green, it is easy to spot.
So if, for instance, some of its stem cells are injected into another animal, scientists can track how they develop without the need for a biopsy or invasive test.
image courtesy of AP
