Gene Editing Can Change The Social Behavior of Animals in Unexpected Ways:
The CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technique can be used to change genetic coding with great precision, and its uses include curing disease and fixing genetic faults. Now it's been used to change animal behavior – and the results are not what scientists were expecting.
CRISPR was used on a group of hamsters to knock out the Avpr1a receptor, which is acted on by the hormone vasopressin. Vasopressin is linked to social actions, such as bonding, cooperation, communication, dominance, and aggression.
Without the Avpr1a receptor, the team behind the study expected social communication and aggressive behavior to be reduced.
Instead, the opposite happened: the hamsters without the receptor showed much higher levels of social communication and aggression. Typical sex differences in aggressiveness disappeared as well, with hamsters of both sexes displaying high levels of aggression towards other same-sex individuals.
"This suggests a startling conclusion," says neuroscientist H. Elliott Albers from Georgia State University.
"Even though we know that vasopressin increases social behaviors by acting within a number of brain regions, it is possible that the more global effects of the Avpr1a receptor are inhibitory."
[...] "We don't understand this system as well as we thought we did," says Albers. "The counterintuitive findings tell us we need to start thinking about the actions of these receptors across entire circuits of the brain and not just in specific brain regions."
Journal Reference:
Jack H. Taylor, James C. Walton, Katharine E. McCann, et al. CRISPR-Cas9 editing of the arginine–vasopressin V1a receptor produces paradoxical changes in social behavior in Syrian hamsters, [open access] (DOI: https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2121037119)
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 31 2022, @03:31PM (1 child)
But you should blindly trust them when it comes to COVID.
(Score: 5, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 31 2022, @07:52PM
People like you blindly trust anyone, as long as he/she tells them what they want to hear.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Immerman on Tuesday May 31 2022, @04:27PM (6 children)
What? Knocking out a gene linked to bonding and cooperation might increase aggression in imprisoned animals that can't get away from each other? How could that possibly be the case?
Honestly, when removing a gene linked to such a wide range of social behaviors, how could you realistically expect *any* particular outcome in order to say that the reality was unexpected? The only realistic expectation should be that "social behaviors will change". And they did.
(Score: 3, Funny) by krishnoid on Tuesday May 31 2022, @05:25PM (5 children)
Yeah! Next thing to try is doing the same gene knockout in humans, and then force them to return to work in an open-plan office. I've got a good feeling about that.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 31 2022, @07:15PM (4 children)
officedome! 27 enter, 0 exit!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Immerman on Wednesday June 01 2022, @04:43AM (3 children)
Hmm... Make sure the executives are included and I know a few people that might be willing to take those odds...
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Wednesday June 01 2022, @09:30AM (2 children)
Do it only on the executives and sell the pay-per-view rights.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday June 03 2022, @12:09AM (1 child)
They already have a show like that! It's called "the free market".
(Score: 2) by Opportunist on Friday June 03 2022, @08:49AM
That show is boring, the only way one of them dies is when they off themselves, and since they learned that they get bailed out anyway if they fuck up, these have been few and far between.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 31 2022, @04:39PM
They should teach them Karate, and let them loose to fight for justice.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Mojibake Tengu on Tuesday May 31 2022, @04:46PM (3 children)
So, a fundamental research at the some secret project focused on creating a tame caste of human slaves purposed for future economy has failed. This time.
The edge of 太玄 cannot be defined, for it is beyond every aspect of design
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 31 2022, @06:30PM
"If they take the ship, they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothing – and if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order." [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 31 2022, @07:29PM (1 child)
"So, a fundamental research at the some secret project focused on creating a tame caste of human slaves"
No, it is the other way around. The military wants to create an aggressive caste of human fighters!
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 31 2022, @09:00PM
Now we know, what happened to Runaway! Any records of this in the Navy, back in the day?
(Score: 1) by anubi on Wednesday June 01 2022, @08:09AM (4 children)
The soviets did an experiment to domesticate foxes. It worked.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=russians+breeding+foxes+domesticated [duckduckgo.com]
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Thursday June 02 2022, @03:29AM (3 children)
I've seen this before. The science part of me wonders if humans can be "domesticated" too. (Or, if some of us already are.) How would it be accomplished and how long would it take?
One of the surprising outcomes is how quickly the foxes were domesticated. In this article [pbs.org], it states that after 10 generations, 18% were domesticated and after 20 generations, 35% were domesticated. Today, 70%-80% are domesticated from this study.
That seems to indicate that some foxes will never be domesticated and some will always be wild? Is that the same for humans as well? And what exactly would a "domesticated" or "wild" human act like?
(Score: 1) by anubi on Thursday June 02 2022, @10:45AM (1 child)
Many of us are quite docile and put up with an amazing amount of crap.
While others flat won't tolerate being pushed.
It's been my observation that the former will be found in the working class, as they will feel more comfortable knowing they earned their stuff.
While I think the latter go either to incarceration or authoritarian positions seemingly dependent on their parents social connections.
The former appear to consider anything they have to be a gift, thinking they have it because someone else wanted them to have it. Very apt to be religious, grateful, and by some interpretations, cowardly.
Where the latter come across to me to consider themselves entitled to anything that they can talk someone else out of.
They won't produce anything, and even readily admit they are a burden. They seem to have no ethics, no compassion, and are highly concerned with privilege and rank, so it's clearly delineated who they need to salute, and who they can shit on with impunity.
This seems the human condition and it balances out. Too many wolves, nobody does the little stuff that is needed to survive, the nation fails. Too many sheep, nobody organized them, and we become as industrious as a nation full of bison.
Even my own religious text going back centuries, documents the same. So does almost every other religious text I have seen. Yin-Yang. Wolves and sheep.
Maybe that is why we given an organic life from spiritual origins. There is so much stuff I do not know, and by even typing this post in, I reveal just how little I think I know.
I could easily be called a religious nut case because of my spiritual attitude or feelings of compassion, but then that's what this whole topic is about... Can these attributes be genetically modified? Bred in or out?
I feel this is likely a self levelling condition that will exist as long as humans exist. There will constantly be conflict of one sort or another, a natural condition, similar to noise.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Common Joe on Thursday June 02 2022, @06:23PM
I don't think that's what this topic is about. First off, I over simplified the definition of "domesticated". The article I linked to says that even domesticated foxes sometimes still pee in the coffee mug. But, the article given us one version of a definition. But that raises the question: what does it really mean to be have a domesticated animal? Second, what is the definition of a domesticated human? Once we define that, then we can talk about breeding genetic modifications and some of the things you mentioned above.
As far as religion or spirituality... I define religion as something that is man made... which has nothing to do with god or a belief in god. As far as spiritual feelings or feelings of compassion... so far science seems to say that, yes, these are things baked into our DNA. Compare humans to a female praying mantis biting off the head of the male that's mating with it. That behavior is baked into their DNA. (Something that would be horrific to us is perfectly ok to the praying mantis.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 11 2022, @07:52AM
You're unlikely to see it in 'surface excursions', but between inbred counties of the US and 'traded wives' between bdsm and 'religious' communities, there are already huge amounts of women who have been domesticated in exactly the way described. Furthermore the pushing out of boys, either for not being man enough, too outwardly smart, or simply for contesting the patriarch or community leader's authority all show examples of this. Selective breeding for compliance to the status quo. While my research on this has focused on the US, from secondary discussions with others the same behaviors are going on in subcultures throughout Europe, Africa, South America, etc. Some are closed communities, others span nations.
The disturbing part is all cater to authorities either local (usually compensated through indirect financial means) or regional/national (paid services.) The latter provides quite a bit of leverage since everybody involved is recording the activities and trade threats of blackmail when leverage is needed in other spheres.
Once you start understanding how the world really works, and how much 'think of the children' is trumpeted by the very people intimately concerned with them you lose all faith in both the establishment and humanity. The sheep have been bred for thousands of years and they are only getting sheeple-er.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @04:13PM (2 children)
"Without the Avpr1a receptor, the team behind the study expected social communication and aggressive behavior to be reduced.
...
with hamsters of both sexes displaying high levels of aggression towards other same-sex individuals.
"
From the OP
From the Wikipedia link
"The high-density distributions of vasopressin receptor AVPr1a in prairie vole ventral forebrain regions have been shown to facilitate and coordinate reward circuits during partner preference formation, critical for pair bond formation.[12]
A very similar substance, lysine vasopressin (LVP) or lypressin, has the same function in pigs and its synthetic version was used in human AVP deficiency, although it has been largely replaced by desmopressin.
...
Recent evidence suggests that vasopressin may have analgesic effects"
I'm curious, why were these results unexpected?
It seems like, based on the description of what I'm reading from Wikipedia the results that happened are exactly what would logically be expected.
Could it be that claiming the results were to be expected wouldn't attract as many headlines? So ... you just change your expectations in the publication to some illogical expectation to grab headlines? Now you need more funding for further research, am I right?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @05:37PM (1 child)
It isn't about headlines, but funding. Nobody wants to fund the follow-up research that is vital for keeping the scientific process on track.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 01 2022, @07:08PM
The solution shouldn't be to lie about what one should expect.
(Score: 1) by jman on Friday June 03 2022, @12:39PM
A collection of diametric behaviors controlled by the same receptor.
Hmmm, I have a headache. Perhaps a dose of heroin is in order. I hear it helps with headaches.
These folks may be on to something, but certainly a greater understanding of just what's getting "suppressed" is needed.