The dissection of animals has become a controversial issue as it is 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 because the development of cancer can also be monitored in the transparent frogs. Besides, we can also investigate the effect of toxins on the frogs’ bones, livers and other organs on top of it being 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 the same traits. However, their grandchildren will die shortly as they have two sets of recessive genes and the genes will soon be kicked out 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.
Swee Kee Tan
s4193617
original text:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/09/27/2045617.htm
