Scientists have created “labeuda mice” genetically designed with skin similar to thick hair that kept the woolly mammoths during the Last ice age.
The Bioscience Colossal Biotechnology Company announced images and images of the Lanudos Mice on Tuesday (March 4). The adorable rodents mark a milestone in Colossal project to bring giant backward By 2028, the company said in a statement shared with Live Science.
“We actually just started this work in mice in September. [2024]” Ben LammCo -founder and CEO of Colossal, told Live Science. “We didn’t know they were going to be so nice.”
Colossal scientists eventually “resurrect” Lanudos Gutmots (Mammuthus primitive) By first editing the cells of the closest living relatives of mammoths, Asian elephants (Elephas Maximus), To create elephant hybrid embryos with hairy hair and Other Lanudos gigantic features. But before researchers can start working with elephants, they must try the relevant genetic editions and mice engineering tools, which are easier to maintain and faster to reproduce.
Related: Gigantic Lanududa’s gigantic is approaching after the progress of elephant stem cells
“A mouse model is very useful in this case, because unlike elephants [whose gestation lasts about 22 months]Mice have a 20 -day gestation “, Beth ShapiroAn evolutionary biologist and scientific director of Colossal, said Live Science.
The short gestation period allowed researchers to design, clone And cultivates the woolly mice in just six months, Lamm and Shapiro said. Colossal scientists described the results in a study that was loaded to the Preprint Database Biorxiv March 4. The study has not been reviewed by pairs.
Spongy rodents
To create the woolly mice, the researchers modified seven of the rodent genes, six of which were related to the texture, length and color of skins. The scientists selected these genes through the detection of DNA sequences that control hair growth in mice and have evolutionary links with sequences that gave the folding hairy mammoths.
“We have not taken gigantic genes and put them in a mouse,” Shapiro said. “We have sought the variants of the gene mouse that we believe are useful in mammoths and then create mice that have many of these editions simultaneously.”
Most editions “turned off” genes that are generally active in mice. For example, scientists blocked a gene called FGF-5 that regulates hair length, resulting in skin mice that are three times longer than standard laboratory mice.
The team also gave the mutations of the mice that existed in woolly mammoths, which resulted in more undulating fur than normal mice. The Languos mammoths had a truncated version of a gene called TGF Alfa, as well as a mutation in the KRT27 keratin gene, which the scientists incorporated into the Lanudo Mouse DNA.
The researchers used three genetic engineering techniques to add the editions to a single organism, including a technology called multiplex precision genome edition, which allows researchers to edit several DNA sites at the same time with high precision.
“It is definitely a proof of concept that you can incorporate multiple mutations into a single mouse and make your hair look like gigantic hair.” Vincent LynchAn evolutionary biologist and associated professor at the University of Buffalo who does not participate in Colossal Research, said Live Science.
Colossal scientists also focused on a gene that regulates the metabolism of fats and the absorption of fatty acids in mice. Lanudos mammoths prospered at cold temperatures in part thanks to fat deposits under their skin, so the team tried to confer the same deposits to mice editing the associated DNA sequence.
But the effects of this insertion are not clear, Lynch said. “I guess they expected the mouse to have more or less body fat,” he said, adding that physical results are probably too small to observe.
It is not yet clear if genetically modified mice can tolerate more cold conditions than standard mice, but colossal scientists say they will try it in the coming months. “We know that editions are there, so now we just need to prove what level of cold tolerance confers,” Lamm said.
While the woolly mice are one step closer to the objective of bringing back to the woolly mammoths, there are still significant obstacles to overcome. For example, the technology involved in the engineering of the woolly mice is very advanced, but it is far from what will be necessary to obtain similar results in elephants, Lynch said. Mice have naturally dense hair, but that is not the case in elephants, which means that the technical challenge will be much greater, he said.
“Elephants have a fur, but hair density is much less than other mammals, so even if they could make those mutations in an Asian elephant […] It will be really scarce, “said Lynch.” So, what you should do, in reality, is a lot of additional genome edition to find in some way a way to increase hair density. “
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