Dissections of animal have become a controversial issue as they are inhumane and cruel to the animals. Recently, the lead researcher Masayuki Sumida, professor at the Institute for Amphibian Biology at Hiroshima University announced that his team has created transparent frogs which their organs, blood vessels and eggs can be observed without performing dissections. Apart from observing the functions of organs, research of cancer can be carried out as the development of cancer can also be observed from the transparent frogs. Besides, we can also observe the effect of toxins on the frogs’ bones, livers and other organs and it is a cost-effective method. To produce the transparent frogs, Sumida’s team crossed the frogs with two kinds of recessive genes which can cause the frog to be pale through artificial insemination. As a result, the skins of the frogs are transparent from the tadpole stage. The transparent frogs can reproduce offspring with same traits. However, their grandchildren will die shortly as they have two sets of recessive genes and the genes will be soon kicked in by natural selection. Lastly, Sumida suggested that genetic engineering could also produce transparent and even illuminating frogs in the future by injecting an illuminating protein into the transparent frogs.
Link to original article:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/27/2045617.htm
Swee Kee Tan
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