Researchers from Seoul National University have created piglets with abnormal muscle growth by disrupting a gene that inhibits muscle cell growth:
Key to creating the double-muscled pigs is a mutation in the myostatin gene (MSTN). MSTN inhibits the growth of muscle cells, keeping muscle size in check. But in some cattle, dogs and humans, MSTN is disrupted and the muscle cells proliferate, creating an abnormal bulk of muscle fibres. To introduce this mutation in pigs, Kim used a gene-editing technology called a TALEN, which consists of a DNA-cutting enzyme attached to a DNA-binding protein. The protein guides the cutting enzyme to a specific gene inside cells, in this case in MSTN, which it then cuts. The cell's natural repair system stitches the DNA back together, but some base pairs are often deleted or added in the process, rendering the gene dysfunctional.
The team edited pig fetal cells. After selecting one edited cell in which TALEN had knocked out both copies of the MSTN gene, Kim's collaborator Xi-jun Yin, an animal-cloning researcher at Yanbian University in Yanji, China, transferred it to an egg cell, and created 32 cloned piglets. Kim and his team have not yet published their results. However, photographs of the pigs "show the typical phenotype" of double-muscled animals, says Heiner Niemann, a pioneer in the use of gene-editing tools in pigs who is at the Friedrich Loeffler Institute in Neustadt, Germany. In particular, he notes, they have the pronounced rear muscles that are typical of such animals. Yin says that preliminary investigations, show that the pigs provide many of the double-muscled cow's benefits — such as leaner meat and a higher yield of meat per animal. However, they also share some of its problems. Birthing difficulties result from the piglets' large size, for instance. And only 13 of the 32 lived to 8 months old. Of these, two are still alive, says Yin, and only one is considered healthy. Rather than trying to create meat from such pigs, Kim and Yin plan to use them to supply sperm that would be sold to farmers for breeding with normal pigs. The resulting offspring, with one disrupted MSTN gene and one normal one, would be healthier, albeit less muscly, they say; the team is now doing the same experiment with another, newer gene-editing technology called CRISPR/Cas9. Last September, researchers reported using a different method of gene editing to develop new breeds of double-muscled cows and double-muscled sheep (C. Proudfoot et al. Transg. Res. 24, 147–153; 2015).
A mutation in MSTN could occur naturally, and no gene transfer is involved. No genetically engineered animal has been approved for human consumption by any of the world's regulators, but the U.S. and Germany have passed on regulating gene-edited crops that do not incorporate new DNA in the genome.
Original Submission
Related Stories
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.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals claims that Cambodian farmers are breeding "double-muscled" pigs. "Double-muscled" refers to a mutation in the myostatin gene (MSTN) which normally keeps muscle growth in check. Disruption of MSTN can lead to the abnormal proliferation of muscle cells in an organism:
Mutant pigs bred to grow to an enormous size just to be slaughtered and eaten? No, we aren't talking about the plot of the eye-opening Netflix sensation Okja—rather, this is the very real horror that seems to be unfolding on a Cambodian farm, where genetically altered pigs are being bred to develop heaping knots of muscle mass. Disturbing video footage and images captured on the farm have exploded around the web, sparking discussions about the many ways that animals suffer and are abused when they're treated as nothing more than "food."
[...] When South Korean and Chinese scientists created 32 double-muscled piglets in 2015, according to reports, only one was considered even marginally healthy. But pigs suffer even without this "Frankenscience"—on typical pig farms, their tails are cut off, their sensitive teeth are ground down, and the males are castrated, all without so much as an aspirin. Then, even though we have a wealth of nutritious plant-based foods to eat, these intelligent, playful, sociable animals' throats are slit and their bodies are turned into pork chops or sausages.
Breeders have exploited natural double-muscling, which occurs in Belgian Blue cattle, to create behemoth animals who suffer from a slew of health problems—just to yield slightly larger profits.
[Note: On Google News, only corroborating sources seem to be British tabloids right now]
Previously: "Double-Muscled" Pigs Created Using Simple Gene Modification
Scientists Create Extra-Muscular Beagles
Scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have used the CRISPR gene editing technique to create pigs with less body fat. The GMO pigs may be better from both a cost and animal welfare standpoint:
Here's something that may sound like a contradiction in terms: low-fat pigs. But that's exactly what Chinese scientists have created using new genetic engineering techniques.
In a paper [DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1707853114] [DX] published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists report that they have created 12 healthy pigs with about 24 percent less body fat than normal pigs.
The scientists created low-fat pigs in the hopes of providing pig farmers with animals that would be less expensive to raise and would suffer less in cold weather. "This is a big issue for the pig industry," says Jianguo Zhao of the Institute of Zoology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, who led the research. "It's pretty exciting."
[...] The animals have less body fat because they have a gene that allows them to regulate their body temperatures better by burning fat. That could save farmers millions of dollars in heating and feeding costs, as well as prevent millions of piglets from suffering and dying in cold weather. "They could maintain their body temperature much better, which means that they could survive better in the cold weather," Zhao said in an interview.
Previously: "Double-Muscled" Pigs Created Using Simple Gene Modification
eGenesis Bio Removes PERV From Pigs Using CRISPR
PETA Claims That Cambodian Farmers Are Breeding "Double-Muscled" Mutant Pigs
The Food and Drug Administration has given its first approval for human consumption of a genetically modified animal. AquAdvantage salmon grow twice as fast and year-round compared to salmon that have already been honed by selective breeding.
A kind of salmon that's been genetically modified so that it grows faster may be on the way to a supermarket near you. The Food and Drug Administration approved the fish on Thursday — a decision that environmental and food-safety groups are vowing to fight.
This new kind of fast-growing salmon was actually created 25 years ago by Massachusetts-based AquaBounty Technologies. A new gene was inserted into fertilized salmon eggs — it boosted production of a fish growth hormone. The result: a fish that grows twice as fast as its conventional, farm-raised counterpart.
AquaBounty has been trying to get government approval to sell its fish ever since. Five years ago, the FDA's scientific advisers concluded that the genetically modified fish, known as AquaAdvantage salmon, is safe to eat and won't harm the environment.
[More after the break.]
(Score: 2) by Geezer on Tuesday July 07 2015, @03:33PM
For the win!
(Score: 3, Touché) by bob_super on Tuesday July 07 2015, @03:39PM
Well ... no.
You are thinking about double-fat pigs, these are double-muscled.
Eat enough of either and you'll get a double-sized heart.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2015, @03:44PM
Super mutant pigs
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2015, @04:35PM
Or Super Swine sounds better. With all that extra muscle it has super strength and even super speed.
(Score: 3, Funny) by mhajicek on Tuesday July 07 2015, @04:30PM
They'll still upcharge for double meat.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2015, @03:55PM
Our new gourmet-tasting, interspecies mixed martial arts buttkicking, $6 million pig overlords.
(Score: 2) by Kell on Tuesday July 07 2015, @11:14PM
"Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology; better, stronger, tastier than he was before."
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 3, Funny) by LoRdTAW on Tuesday July 07 2015, @04:13PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RV_HHkunTE [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Tuesday July 07 2015, @07:16PM
I was going to post this, but you beat me to it :^)
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 3, Insightful) by KBentley57 on Tuesday July 07 2015, @04:35PM
While I applaud their efforts, the "double muscling" effect via gene manipulation has been demonstrated in other mammals (mice, cows, ect..) for well over a decade. That fact that it is a pig is minimal in my eyes.
What is more interesting to me, is that the effect was very small in modern domesticated cattle. We've bred them so well, with such selectivity, that they are basically at their muscular capacity.
(Score: 4, Informative) by KBentley57 on Tuesday July 07 2015, @05:21PM
For the curious, a link to the study: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC24998/ [nih.gov]
(Score: 1) by Snort on Wednesday July 08 2015, @12:33PM
Were you unable to download the open access PDF by following the DOI link?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2015, @05:26PM
I think the 'breakthrough' here is to have done it in something closer to humans on the genetic scale.
I for one cannot wait to welcome our SuperMuscled, Gene-Modified, Trans-Human Overlords. All Hail Arny!
(Score: 1) by KBentley57 on Tuesday July 07 2015, @05:28PM
It's the same gene in all the animals mentioned, the 'myostatin sector' of the DNA. I don't think doing it in pigs gets us any closer than we were to doing it in humans. I've been wildly wrong in the past thought!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2015, @07:16PM
There is a German kid, the child of two athletes, who has this. He's pretty much Bam Bam in real life.
Well, he's probably grown up now.
(Score: 4, Informative) by GungnirSniper on Tuesday July 07 2015, @10:44PM
Belgian Blues are monsters because they have been bred for this gene, [wikipedia.org] at least prior to us knowing what genes are.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday July 08 2015, @08:35AM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2015, @05:56PM
That's the first thing I thought of.
(Score: 1) by archfeld on Tuesday July 07 2015, @07:05PM
Super muscled pigs that go feral and become massively aggressive in less than 3 generations. Imagine a Hogzilla with double the muscle and a ravenous appetite.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 2) by darnkitten on Tuesday July 07 2015, @08:08PM
Feral, hell--some redneck'll breed 'em with razorbacks and set 'em loose so's he'll have sumthin' FUN ta shoot!
(Score: 2, Funny) by archfeld on Tuesday July 07 2015, @11:21PM
Some red neck nothing, it will be a producer looking for a new 'reality' show.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2015, @10:14PM
Just imagine Animal Farm with these pigs... Animal Mortal Kombat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 07 2015, @10:51PM
a monkey with three asses.
Seriously, I thought the future was predicted by South Park.
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Wednesday July 08 2015, @12:16AM
I wish. "Soon you'll have more anuses than you ever thought possible"
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2015, @06:53AM
Pigs are for eating, not wanking off. Our most highly trained members of the species are now spending thier time wanking pigs. Seriously though, who is funding this gmo hype? Last i read a paper where they actually checked for off target mutations and they found a bunch of them (dozens that they detected, as I recall), and that is supposed to be an improvement. If you treat cells with some mutagen and then select only a few that result randomly in the mutation you want, you can accomplish the same thing as described in this story. We should wait for the paper at least.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 08 2015, @09:15AM
That way their food consumption will be much lower...