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A CRISPR first produces squid as clear as glass
- ladberg 6y agoFor anyone coming to the comments before reading the article: the squid is already clear, they just removed some spots of pigment.
- ultramundane8 6y agoThank you! I don't like admitting to this behavior, but I can't trust a headline (any headline).
- Areading314 6y agoThe reason this is a significant achievement is that the DNA of living cells in the organism were "edited" to remove the pigmentation, thereby effectively changing the phenotype of an adult squid.
- T-A 6y agoThey edited embryos: we determined whether a TDO-selective inhibitor (680C91) impeded pigmentation in developing embryos. The development of D. pealeii has been divided into 30 stages and eye pigmentation appears at ∼stage 25, while chromatophore pigmentation starts at stage 26 [21]. We added 680C91 to developing embryos at stage 20
- Duller-Finite 6y agoWhile you're right they edited the embryos the sentence you quoted is describing a drug (680C91) that they bath-applied to inhibit the TDO enzyme (as a positive control), rather than the CRISPR strategy they used, in which they injected the Cas9 and sgRNA into the embryo.
- T-A 6y agoOops, I should have quoted this part, from the summary: Knocking out TDO in squid embryos efficiently eliminated pigmentation. By precisely timing CRISPR-Cas9 delivery during early development, the degree of pigmentation could be finely controlled.
- azernik 6y agoAnd the advantage here is that it's the start of development of a genetic-modification toolkit (similar to that we already have for fruit flies and c elegans and zebrafish) for using them as animal models. Much more complex of a brain than any of the other animal models we usually use.
- meowface 6y agoIsn't this a bit of a slippery slope? The better a model of a human brain you experiment on, the closer you approach the ethics of performing the same experiment on human embryos, infants, children, and adults (as they age). I think this is already pretty close to the case for mice, but when you start doing it to cephalopods, primates, and dolphins/orcas, you're really skirting the line. I wonder if there'll ever be a time where if we aren't comfortable with doing something to human embryos (or other stages) in experiments, we also won't be comfortable doing it to the animals closest to us on the intelligence and awareness totem pole, and eventually perhaps any sentient animals at all (so nearly all of them besides jellyfish, sponges, anemomes, and some other ocean dwellers). This day feels inevitable to me, but I don't know whether it's 20 years or 200 years away.
- FriendlyNormie 6y agoWhatever pathetic western pussies are too squeamish to do, China will do it first or has secretly already done it.
- VRay 6y agoWe're still chopping up likely-sentient animals and eating them, so it's probably a ways off..
- war1025 6y agoI believe I read this in the book Grandfather by Tom Brown [1] (could have been somewhere else). The author was taught by an Apache elder about survival, etc. Part of that was learning how to track and hunt. The first time he killed a deer, he was required to sneak up on the deer and kill it with a knife. That way he would know the gravity of what he was doing. He wrote that he cried for a good while afterwards. I think that is a perspective more people should take with eating meat. To know you are taking the life of a living, breathing thing to sustain your own life. I think it used to be a much more common view, but it's hard to view a chicken nugget or a hamburger as an animal that lost its life to continue yours. [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/434013.Grandfather https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/434013.Grandfather
- imvetri 6y ago:D
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- ashtonkem 6y agoStill impressive, but definitely not as complicated as taking an opaque squid and making it clear.
- stronglikedan 6y agoThey missed a spot! Sorry, couldn't help myself.
- LargoLasskhyfv 6y agoI feel creeped out/put off about this. These are intelligent beings, apparently limited only by their short lifespan. They communicate by modulating the pigments into patterns. Now that has been taken away. Imagine toasting some genes in a human embryo to the effect of lock in syndrome. Crispy! edit: I think this is a case for PETA to look into.
- azernik 6y agoThat's octopodes; squid are much less intelligent. They're moving on next to much smaller (and hence even less intelligent) hummingbird bobtail squid.
- sradman 6y agoMy starting assumption is that octopus, cuttlefish, and squid have similar intelligence levels. If chromatophore manipulation is correlated to cephalopod intelligence then bobtail squid are small but smart. My own anecdotal evidence is that juvenile cephalopods exhibit adult-level intelligence which is a good reminder not to project mammalian behavior assumptions on cephalopods.
- pvaldes 6y agoThe big squids are probably much more intelligent than octopus. Octopuses are solitary. Squids are social and top predators able to travel very long distances and live in a wider range of habitats. They can make light and use light and color patterns to display complex behaviour or lure preys Is also well known that squids are able to communicate two opposite messages to different colleagues at the same time.
- sradman 6y agoCephalopods are amazing animals but I would be careful about anthropomorphizing their behavior. If they are communicating via chromatophores, then this type of animal model will be key to understanding how this kind of signalling works. Cruelty implies stress or pain; albino social animals might be a better analogy than lock in syndrome.
- raywu 6y agoIIRC it's a big deal because this is the first crack at cephalopod DNA - I don't recall where I read this. Anyone has a source?
- azernik 6y agoIt's in the first sentence of the article: "...the first use of CRISPR in cephalopods, a class of marine invertebrates."
- dprophecyguy 6y agoAs a learner, is it possible to self learn more about Gene Editing and these things, and can these things can be learned in a hacker way without going through a formal academic route ?
- nestorD 6y agoIn my country (France) the use of CRISPR is highly regulated (its basically regulated as biological weapon material). You could learn about it from articles and textbooks but are very unlikely to be able to play with it.
- DrAwdeOccarim 6y agoAs much as I appreciate the desire for governments to stem the tide, what you're saying is likely very difficult--if not impossible--for a government to effectively stop. Of course, people who don't want to break the law will comply but those who don't care will have no trouble doing as they please. Gene editing is quite simple now, and with only a few purchased parts one can edit whatever they please. Maybe you're thinking of editing human embryos?
- sampo 6y ago> is it possible to self learn more about Gene Editing You could (1) read a basic textbook in genetics (or look at online courses in genetics and molecular biology), (2) read a textbook in genetic engineering, and then (3) read a book in CRISPR. Maybe there could also be some shorter path than reading 3 books.
- peter303 6y agoFranken-CRISPR
- throwaway743 6y agoAre its eyes messed up in the photo or is that normal?
- imvetri 6y agoThey removed the dots in the eyes as well.
- verroq 6y agoSo it’s blind? Reminds me of the Invisible Man plot hole where the guy gets turned invisible and thus his retinas also become transparent and therefore he shouldn’t be able to see anything.
- FriendlyNormie 6y agoEver since you watched that movie with your mother, you’ve been waiting for an excuse to show how smart you are by sharing this thought with someone other than her. Pathetic.
- pvaldes 6y agoNot necessarily. The animals in the photo aren't the same animals. This is the normal aspect of a squid larvae.
- pvaldes 6y agoThe eyes seem normal to me. In any case squids belong to the exclusive club of animals that can have different types of eyes (different size or shape) at the same time.
- raws 6y agoYeah it really looks like the eye pigments are not the same.
- throwanem 6y agoThey aren't, and the article notes as much.
- finneganscat 6y agoCRISPRy critters
- Haleabus 6y agoPlease do this to great White Sharks.
- Chris2048 6y agoinvisible, glass-like sharks? no thanks. Though at least if you got a limb bitten off, you could see in which shark it resides.
- sradman 6y agoThe paper Highly Efficient Knockout of a Squid Pigmentation Gene [1] > two key advances have made it possible to develop techniques for the genetic manipulation of squid. The first is the CRISPR-Cas9 system for targeted gene disruption, a largely species-agnostic method. The second is the sequencing of genomes for several cephalopod species. The point is not a clear squid lacking chromatophores, a rather discomforting thought, but creating a new animal model with knockout genes. [1] https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)30985-4 https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(20)...
- The_rationalist 6y agoCould this have been done on an adult squid??
- YayamiOmate 6y agoI assume not. I am pretty confidnet the whole purpose is for the cells to never grow. It works by editing cell information. If you let original cells divide there will be more unedited cells. So the eariler in the development you apply modification the more prononuced the effect. I think I read somewhere that they could alter amount of pigmentation by timing application of treatment. So that would fit. It doesnt work by killing existing cells. Maybe it could work if old cells died and new ones would be edited, so they could gradually replace original ones but I guess its pretty hard to deliver gene editor to so many cells.
- The_rationalist 6y agoCells divide really slowly so if you could edit most cells in one day then only a negligible amount of new cells would be unedited. * I guess its pretty hard to deliver gene editor to so many cells* this is the breakthrough waiting CRISPR and impossible to find a great up to date scientific resource on the technical issues and on the path towards progress.
- harryf 6y agoSo we're getting closer to RayFish Footwear https://www.rayfish.com/ https://www.rayfish.com/ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVk_Vw1C7cs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVk_Vw1C7cs
- chmaynard 6y agoIra Flatow interviews two of the scientists on a Science Friday podcast: https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/squid-gene-editing/ https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/squid-gene-editing/
- sradman 6y agoThis is a great 17 minute high-level overview of the science. The breakthrough is the tool/technique used to access the embryo without physically damaging the egg. The glass-like embryo is a unique characteristic of this species, not the knockout gene. This work is a proof of concept; this species does not (yet) reproduce in captivity. Both scientists demonstrate a deep love for cephalopods and for science. They also discuss the ethics surrounding cephalopod research.
- pharke 6y agoRead Sheena 5 by Stephen Baxter, great short story.
- pvillano 6y agofinally
- EGreg 6y agoThere is a third squid in there, on the top right. It is actually clear as glass! Wow
- watertom 6y agoWhen can we use CRISPR to address the mutation with the L-gulono-γ-lactone oxidase gene (GLO; EC number 1.1.3.8) which controls the synthesize l-ascorbic acid (vitamin C) in humans? Is it possible with CRISPR? Can it be introduced in a person and have it reverse the mutation? Fixing this mutation might have the biggest impact on global human health, in humans the GLO mutation only impact the synthesis of vitamin C, unlike in other animals like primates, bats, guinea pigs and fish the mutation can't be reversed because it impacts other systems.
- dekhn 6y agoIs there a specific disease you're targeting, or are you trying to give general humans abilities they don't already have? The latter is not being considered at this point.
- est31 6y agoIt's both. No human has the ability to synthesize vitamin C in their own bodies, leading to scurvy, unless you supplement vitamin C in your diet. Most people eat enough vitamin C to not lead to scurvy. There is a disease that would be eliminated, but it's preventable by watching out what you eat. Also, usually it takes more than just the synthesis of the enzyme. It also needs to be regulated, which requires the systems that regulate it to be around as well (and work correctly). Neither producing too much of the enzyme, nor too little is a good outcome. So yeah, I think it's better to focus on other diseases first, that are more serious and where a human carrier of the healthy variant of the gene already walks among us, here on earth.
- dekhn 6y agoI don't think this makes sense since the risk of attempting to add a phenotype greatly outweighs the low cost of just taking vitamin C. Even just producing the right amount of enzyme is a first-order approximation to what actually has to be done to add a phenotype without side effects.
- pvaldes 6y ago
- scruffyherder 6y agoRemove the 4 year lifespan then things will get interesting