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takyon writes:

In July we reported the creation of "double-muscled" pigs using a mutation in the myostatin gene (MSTN). Now CRISPR/Cas9 has been used to do the same in dogs:

Scientists in China say they are the first to use gene editing to produce customized dogs. They created a beagle with double the amount of muscle mass by deleting a gene called myostatin.

The dogs have "more muscles and are expected to have stronger running ability, which is good for hunting, police (military) applications," Liangxue Lai, a researcher with the Key Laboratory of Regenerative Biology at the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, said in an e-mail.

Lai and 28 colleagues reported their results last week in the Journal of Molecular Cell Biology, saying they intend to create dogs with other DNA mutations, including ones that mimic human diseases such as Parkinson's and muscular dystrophy. "The goal of the research is to explore an approach to the generation of new disease dog models for biomedical research," says Lai. "Dogs are very close to humans in terms of metabolic, physiological, and anatomical characteristics."

Lai said his group had no plans breed to breed the extra-muscular beagles as pets. Other teams, however, could move quickly to commercialize gene-altered dogs, potentially editing their DNA to change their size, enhance their intelligence, or correct genetic illnesses. A different Chinese Institute, BGI, said in September it had begun selling miniature pigs, created via gene editing, for $1,600 each as novelty pets.

Generation of gene-target dogs using CRISPR/Cas9 system [paywalled]

Go from wimp to pimp with this one weird gene edit [photo from the article]. Expect your local police force to begin handling mutated extra-muscular canines soon.

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