It's not quite the Esquilax of flatworms, but it's way more interesting. A team of biologists at Tufts University have induced one species of flatworm to grow the head and brain of another species of flatworm, without tampering with the genomic sequence. Instead, they manipulated electrical synapses in the worm's body.
The research shows that large-scale anatomy is not hard-wired in the genome, but can also be affected by physiological circuits outside the genes (at least in flatworms). It has been published this week in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences.
"It is commonly thought that the sequence and structure of chromatin -- material that makes up chromosomes -- determine the shape of an organism, but these results show that the function of physiological networks can override the species-specific default anatomy," said senior and corresponding author Michael Levin.
What would your favorite Frankenstein creation be?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @09:47AM
this reminds me of trying to read old microsoft .doc files with new versions of office.
further proof that it's not just DNA that makes complex organisms what they are.
and further proof that there's an xkcd comic for everything: http://xkcd.com/1605/. [xkcd.com]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by rob_on_earth on Friday November 27 2015, @10:42AM
FTFA
"Interestingly, the changes were not permanent. After a few weeks, the worms began reverting back to their original head shapes and eventually returned to normal. More research is needed to understand this process."
What?
Now I am confused(as apposed to other times when I am also confused).
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @12:02PM
But from what I gather all they did was harm a worm's brain probably making it unable to produce whatever it needs for the process that shapes its head differently from its ancestors.
That made them resemble those ancestors which more closely resembled a different extant species.
No indication that they understand what they changed and its effects let alone them being able to reshape a worm's head at will.
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Friday November 27 2015, @12:04PM
For those who don't know, the Esquilax was a disappointing freak show exhibit at a renaissance fair in The Simpsons:
Chief Wiggum: And here, out of the mists of history, the legendary esquilax: A horse with the head of a rabbit, and the body... of a rabbit!
[the rabbit jumps out of it's pen and makes a break for it]
Wiggum: Oh, it's... galloping away!
Lisa: Here, bunny-bunny. Here, bunny.
Wiggum: Here, esquilax.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeaGOaUR3l0 [youtube.com]
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @03:28PM
So it's a bit like the Spider Baby? It has the body of a spider, but the mind of a baby.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @01:09PM
The pictures of the worms also shows differences in body shape. At the very least all the worms become wider than the recipient worm.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by shrewdsheep on Friday November 27 2015, @01:14PM
"It is commonly thought that the sequence and structure of chromatin -- material that makes up chromosomes -- determine the shape of an organism, but these results show that the function of physiological networks can override the species-specific default anatomy," said senior and corresponding author Michael Levin.
And that statement represents lack of thinking about the subject by the alleged experts. A DNA molecule itself cannot change anything or do anything. Still does DNA shape the shape of an organism. How? It encodes information about biological processes that do effect body shape. Change some of these processes and you change the shape. The article therefore just highlights a potential process involved (if the thinking was alright for the rest of the article; TLDR).
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday November 27 2015, @03:31PM
There were a couple aspects to it that were interesting to me, first that they did not touch the DNA and second that the effect was temporary. That would be extremely powerful in animal husbandry. If you could temporarily make your livestock more drought-resistant by giving them feed with a certain additive to help them better survive an extended dry spell like California's, say.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday November 27 2015, @04:39PM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA_origami [wikipedia.org]
http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/News/2009/May/06050902.asp [rsc.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Funny) by inertnet on Friday November 27 2015, @01:18PM
Soon we'll finally have perfectly spherical cows.
(Score: 2) by mtrycz on Friday November 27 2015, @02:59PM
Putting "science" as the subject of this deed instantly removes any ethincal concerns from the heads of people.
Because, you know, science.
In capitalist America, ads view YOU!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 27 2015, @04:47PM
I don't eat anything without its own face.