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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday October 24 2015, @06:27AM   Printer-friendly
from the spuds-mckenzie-would-be-proud dept.

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.


Original Submission

Related Stories

"Double-Muscled" Pigs Created Using Simple Gene Modification 26 comments

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

PETA Claims That Cambodian Farmers Are Breeding "Double-Muscled" Mutant Pigs 83 comments

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


Original Submission

CRISPR Used to Cure Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in Dogs... by Further Damaging DNA 7 comments

Gene editing of dogs offers hope for treating human muscular dystrophy

Fighting fire with fire, researchers working with dogs have fixed a genetic glitch that causes Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) by further damaging the DNA. The unusual approach, using the genome editor CRISPR, allowed a mutated gene to again make a key muscle protein. The feat—achieved for the first time in a large animal—raises hopes that such genetic surgery could one day prevent or treat this crippling and deadly disease in people. An estimated 300,000 boys around the world are currently affected by DMD.

The study monitored just four dogs for less than 2 months; more animal experiments must be done to show safety and efficacy before human trials can begin. Even so, "I can't help but feel tremendously excited," says Jennifer Doudna of the University of California, Berkeley, who heard the results last week at a CRISPR meeting she helped organize. "This is really an indication of where the field is heading, to deliver gene-edited molecules to the tissues that need them and have a therapeutic benefit. Obviously, we're not there yet, but that's the dream."

[...] The study offers little evidence that dogs regained muscle function, however, and that, coupled with the short duration of the study and the small number of animals studied, left some scientists less enthusiastic. One researcher in the tight-knit DMD field who asked not to be named wonders whether the study was rushed to help draw investment in Exonics Therapeutics, a Boston-based company Olson launched last year to develop the potential treatment.

[...] Another challenge was to alter billions of muscle cells throughout a living animal. So the team enlisted a helper: a harmless adeno-associated virus that preferentially infects skeletal muscle and heart tissue. Two 1-month-old dogs received intramuscular injections of the virus, engineered to carry CRISPR's molecular components. Six weeks later, those muscles were making dystrophin again. Those results led the researchers to give an intravenous infusion to two more dogs, also 1 month old, to see whether the CRISPR-carrying viruses could add the genome editor to muscles throughout the body. By 8 weeks, Olson told the meeting, dystrophin levels climbed to relatively high levels in several muscles, reaching 58% of normal in the diaphragm and 92% in the heart. But because the dogs were euthanized, Olson could show little evidence that they had avoided DMD symptoms, save for a dramatic video of a treated dog walking and jumping normally.

Also at Science News.

Gene editing restores dystrophin expression in a canine model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DOI: 10.1126/science.aau1549) (DX)

More about Duchenne muscular dystrophy at Wikipedia.

Related: Scientists Create Extra-Muscular Beagles
FDA Panel Recommends Rejection of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Treatment
Nonviral CRISPR-Gold Editing Technique Fixes Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy Mutation in Mice
CRISPR Used to Epigenetically Treat Diseases in Mice


Original Submission

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 24 2015, @07:03AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 24 2015, @07:03AM (#253932)
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 24 2015, @08:12PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 24 2015, @08:12PM (#254086)

      Thats exactly what came to my mind when they said "doubled-muscled". When the zombie virus spreads, these animals will be very hard to kill or get rid of.

      The zombie apocalypse just got a lot harder to survive because of "double-muscled" animals.

  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 24 2015, @07:11AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 24 2015, @07:11AM (#253934)

    Good thing its behind a paywall or people would find out the list of authors is as long as the paper. WTF is this? They detected 1 and 8 base pair deletions (mutations) respectively in 2/27 puppies with no control group. They didn't measure muscle mass or strength, just show a few pictures that mean nothing. Also, as has been noted on this site before, this treatment is toxic (different methods were used to get the above mentioned two puppies):

    Twenty-five embryos with normal morphology were immediately microinjected with a mixture of Cas9 mRNA and MSTN sgRNA. The injected embryos were transferred into six surrogate mothers with estrus that were presumptively synchronous with zygote donors. Unfortunately, none of the recipient mothers were found pregnant.

    It selects for preexisting mutants by killing cells containing the sequence it targets. Or maybe it doesn't, but who would know since no one ever checked? In this case it probably isn't even that.

  • (Score: 2) by Gravis on Saturday October 24 2015, @08:50AM

    by Gravis (4596) on Saturday October 24 2015, @08:50AM (#253947)

    they should really consider what happens after the altered dogs breed with unaltered dogs. it seems like a better idea to work on fixing the genetic illnesses that various dog breeds suffer from and see if we can help people in the same way.

    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 24 2015, @09:13AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 24 2015, @09:13AM (#253952)

      Somehow I get the feeling this isn't meant to help people...

      • (Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Saturday October 24 2015, @12:32PM

        by art guerrilla (3082) on Saturday October 24 2015, @12:32PM (#253974)

        now we'll have pit bulls who can track you down !

        (trading on 'bad' pit bulls meme when i have a whip-pit-bull myself...)

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by janrinok on Saturday October 24 2015, @09:17AM

    by janrinok (52) Subscriber Badge on Saturday October 24 2015, @09:17AM (#253955) Journal

    And how long after they have managed to reliably create dogs to order will the technology be used on humans - all in the interests of science, of course?

    Might not China, or any other state for that matter, want an army of super-fit soldiers, all bred to bigger and stronger than a potential enemy? There are even claims that this has already been done [dailymail.co.uk], although the source (The Daily Mail) isn't famed for having the highest journalistic integrity, or for being beyond exaggerating a story to sell more papers. It is, after all, the business they are in. However, in the case of the Chinese basket ball player, there is no suggestion that gene editing has been used.

    In the West, there are many constraints and agreements limiting exactly this sort of experimentation. However, not many of them are legally binding and are usually based more on a moral decision. I don't know if China is a signatory to any of them. Nevertheless, how many might now be tempted to carry out such experiments - so as not to get left behind in this new branch of science - rather than strictly follow the existing guidelines?

    • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday October 24 2015, @09:20AM

      by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday October 24 2015, @09:20AM (#253956) Journal

      Water parks have slippery slopes.

      Enjoy the ride. You will get wet.

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    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 24 2015, @10:05AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 24 2015, @10:05AM (#253961)

      the source (The Daily Mail) isn't famed for having the highest journalistic integrity

      Maybe we could breed the journalists for journalistic integrity!

    • (Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Saturday October 24 2015, @02:50PM

      by Hyperturtle (2824) on Saturday October 24 2015, @02:50PM (#253989)

      Well, if you like to breed, there are some folks in the German/Austrian areas that might suit your needs. I may get beaten to a pulp by their women,, but I can't say that such risks are a would be a sacrifice I wouldn't make.

      http://www.nbcnews.com/id/5278028/ns/health-genetics/t/genetic-mutationturns-tot-superboy/ [nbcnews.com]

      • (Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday October 24 2015, @03:57PM

        by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Saturday October 24 2015, @03:57PM (#254007) Journal

        That case is mentioned in TFA.

        In rare cases, a person can also be born without any working copy of myostatin. In 2004 doctors reported a newborn who “appeared extraordinarily muscular, with protruding muscles in his thighs and upper arms.” They confirmed he was missing the myostatin gene and noted that by four and a half years of age, the boy could extend his arms while holding three-kilogram dumbbells.

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        • (Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Saturday October 24 2015, @04:06PM

          by Hyperturtle (2824) on Saturday October 24 2015, @04:06PM (#254010)

          That's the one, but my citation uses more "American" terminology.

    • (Score: 2) by HiThere on Saturday October 24 2015, @07:19PM

      by HiThere (866) Subscriber Badge on Saturday October 24 2015, @07:19PM (#254063) Journal

      I'm not certain, but it's my expectation that this mutation drastically shortens the life of those who possess it. As in dying of old age in your twenties. So I don't expect it to be popular for people. Beef cattle, however... Well, they don't live long anyway, and this would increase the number of steaks/year.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 24 2015, @05:44PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 24 2015, @05:44PM (#254042)

    The crispr people have practically nothing when it comes to evidence thier method actually works, so they have been shaping the discussion to be about the moral and economic consequences if it did work. This forces you to assume, at least for the moment, that their weakly backed claims are correct. It's quite the evil genius plan, and much cheaper than doing real science.