By nearly any measure, the Beijing Genomics Institute in Shenzhen is the premier genetics powerhouse. In 2010, for example, their 500-node supercomputer was processing and analyzing over 10 terabytes of raw sequencing data every 24 hours. They now produce a quarter of the worlds genomic data, dwarfing the output of places like Harvard and the NIH. Whether BGI is also the undisputed champion at turning this data glut into useful knowledge, on the other hand, is perhaps a matter of opinion.
A recent report in Nature hints at a tantalizing new creation that BGI is set to unleash on the open market: Made-to-order, programmable “micropigs.” Although the pigs were developed by simply knocking out a receptor for growth hormones using well-established TALEN gene-editing techniques, creating radically modified body morphologies without compromising some essential physiology may be more of a challenge. The law of unintended consequences becomes all the more acute when you are simultaneously tinkering with other critical design features, like the major pigment pathways. To that point, BGU will be offering custom pets in a rainbow of colors, with the base model starting at 10,000 yuan (US$1,600).
When you consider that oversupply of just one of the pigments we know about, the pheomelanin of redheads, predisposes them to a whole suite of unique characteristics, we may have cause for concern. For example, there are ample reports in the dental literature that gingers are much more insensitive to anesthetics like novocaine. This is particularly intriguing if you consider that one of the more persuasive new arguments for how anesthetics work is through increases in electron spin content. What are the main bearers of electron spin you might ask? It seems that the answer is mainly pigments, both in the body, and in the brain.
Many are familiar with what happens when you have too much growth hormone action: You generally get a host of new phenomena perhaps best summarized as professional wresting. While features like gigantism and acromegaly may be obvious on the upside of the GH spectrum, the downside, where there is not enough, seems to be a bit more subtle. As in many things where raw technical considerations are inextricable from the larger social and the ethical eventualities, discussions on Twitter have recently been at the fore. For example, in the general pipeline of emerging scientific understanding, we now know that the overall hierarchy (at least in genetics) can be established as follows: data > knowledge > wisdom > bacon.
Although the micropigs are tiny (they weigh in around 30 pounds), sooner or later, somewhere, somebody is going to find out what they taste like. When that happens there may no end to ways to try to enrich various bacony furans, methylpyrazines, and methylpyridines in specific cuts. We should probably bear in mind that the field of pig genetics has been getting a lot of attention recently. This is due, among other things, to the many anatomic and physiologic similarities shared with humans.
Most recently, a genome-wide comparison of common repeat sequences (known as transposons) found in primates and pigs has indicated that the two clades are much more closely related than had formerly been appreciated. With the obvious horrors of factory farming aside, the fetishization of these animals not just for pets, but for food is a clear and present concern.
Without certain controls imposed by collectively enlightened minds things like the thoughtless bear bile industry, or the live turtle neckless culture, can thrive unquestioned. These gene-edited micropigs are not even one-step beyond anything we have already seen. In fact they are par for the course with much that we already now accept. The genetic sleight-of-hand used to create the famous Belgian Blues seen in the image above is not limited to creating supercows. In fact, hypermuscled pigs with the same ‘myostatin’ gene knockout reported earlier this summer. In the case of these myostatin animals, both copies of the gene were knocked out. While it is not yet proven, crippling just one of the genes would be expected to create an animal with more intermediate features.
In the case of the mini-pigs, this is exactly what has been done. To clone their pigs, BGI first edited cells obtained from a fetus of the Bama pig species. Male clones established in this way were then bred with normal females to make more pigs with just one good receptor. On the research side, it has been reported that the pigs would be useful in various studies of things like the gut microbiota, stem cells and human dwarfism. For the latter, particularly the variety known as Laron syndrome, the human version of the growth hormone receptor has certain mutations or substitutions.
These ‘side benefits’ of the work may be legitimate pursuits. However, we are not going to offer them here as any type of endorsement for this work. It is a very short hop from what is now widely being touted as “adorable” to what can only be seen as “deplorable.” That said, new gene editing techniques based on variations of the so-called CRISPR method are probably the most exciting, and potentially useful technology we might now avail ourselves of.
Credit: extremetech
