Hey! Wish to see all those bizzare characters from the animated animal world in real? Just send a request to the herd of those crazy and impertinent scientists who have already leased a conspiracy to enliven the unusual, entertaining animal-characters of the cartoonists.
It is no joke! Researchers have already tweaked a few Cnox genes to create a ‘dozen headed’ jellyfish right in their laboratory. Related to the Hox genes of humans, the Cnox genes help control the way of the jellyfish-bodies’ lying out with their developing embryos.
Explaining their creation, evolutionary biologist and invertebrate zoologist Bernd Schierwater at the Hanover University of Veterinary Medicine in Germany said that —
The researchers designed RNA molecules that specifically only silenced Cnox genes in these saltwater critters. Normally, the saltiness of these animals would prevent the molecules from entering their cells, but the scientists diluted seawater with freshwater enough where the jellyfish still survived and the RNA got in.
Though this experimenting on the European hydromedusa (Eleutheria dichotoma) — collected from the south of France - may one day provide clues on how the other multi-headed organisms’ natural colonies first originated, which includes some of the coral reefs-building ones, this can be just the beginning of cloning humans with bizarre features!
After all, the Cnox genes used are closely related to Hox genes of humans and the scientists’ inquiring minds are always bustling with exotism.
Photo Credit: University of Veterinary Medicine Hanover
