A mouse that roars: Chinese scientists create the first mammal with fully reprogrammed genes
- Chinese Academy of Sciences team says it has fully recombined the chromosomes of a mouse named Xiao Zhu, or ‘Little Bamboo’
- A report on the experiment, which produced a mouse with 19 pairs of chromosomes – one fewer than natural – has been published in Science magazine
A team of scientists in Beijing has announced they have achieved a complete recombination of the chromosomes of a mouse, a genetic engineering breakthrough that could pave the way for the design and creation of mammal species that do not exist in nature.
The mouse – called Xiao Zhu, or “Little Bamboo” – was the world’s first mammal with fully reprogrammed genes, the scientists said, referring to a process where researchers break chromosomes into various segments and put them back together in different combinations to create a new package of genes.
.
This is the first time the modification of mammalian genes has been carried out in a scale as big as chromosomes, according to the researchers.
Chromosomes are threadlike components that hold DNA in a cell’s nuclei. They break apart and recombine naturally, driving the reproduction and evolution of most life forms on Earth.
This natural process is extremely complicated and delicate. Until recently, human intervention had been limited, successful only with single-cell organisms like yeast.