The brains of some genetically modified monkeys are more like that of humans. Genetic engineering takes frightening giant steps, forcing the timing of natural evolution
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himThe brains of some genetically modified monkeys it is more like human. Genetic engineering is making giant leaps that are frightening, forcing the timing of natural evolution.
Human intelligence is one of the most consequential "inventions" of evolution. It is the result of a sprint that began millions of years ago, which has led to ever larger brains and the acquisition of new skills by humans. At the height of this evolutionary path, humans stood up, took the plow, and in a sense created civilization, while our primate cousins remained to live among the trees.
But today a team of scientists in southern China revealed that it partially bridged this evolutionary gap, creating several transgenic macaques with extra copies of a human gene that would play a key role in the formation of intelligence.
The team spawned 11 transgenic Rhesus monkeys (8 first generation and 3 second generation) carrying human copies of MCPH1, an important gene for brain development and evolution.
"It is the first attempt to understand the evolution of human cognition using a transgenic monkey model", he said proud Bing Su, the geneticist from the Kunming Institute of Zoology who led the study.
According to the research, genetically engineered monkeys performed better a memory test involving blocky colors and images than non-transgenic ones.
In particular, according to the experiments, the Chinese team expected that the transgenic monkeys could have greater intelligence and brain size. This is why they subjected the animals to magnetic resonance imaging to measure their white matter and gave them computerized memory tests. According to their report, the transgenic monkeys did not have larger brains, but they did better on a short-term memory quiz, an achievement the team considers remarkable.
The experiments, described on March 27 on National Science Review, and reported for the first time by the Chinese media, remain far from pinpointing the secrets of the human mind or leading to a revolt of intelligent primates but still scary, raising numerous ethical issues.
If the Chinese are so proud of their achievements and of manipulating the genetic code of monkeys, so are their colleagues around the world.
“The use of transgenic monkeys to study human genes linked to brain evolution is one very risky road to undertake, ”said James Sikela, a geneticist who conducts comparative studies of primates at the University of Colorado. The scientist fears that the experiment will show contempt for animals and go to more extreme modifications.
Research using primates, thankfully, is increasingly difficult in Europe and the United States, but China has been quick to apply the latest high-tech DNA tools to animals. The country was the first to create genetically engineered monkeys with the CRISPR gene-editing tool, a precision technique that allows for targeted correction of a DNA sequence. In addition, a Chinese institute announced in January that it had produced half a dozen clones of a monkey with a severe mental disorder.
The biggest stumbling block remains that of intelligence. The brains of our human ancestors developed rapidly in size and power. To find the genes that caused this change, the scientists looked for the differences between humans and chimpanzees, whose genes are about 98% similar to ours. The goal, says Sikela, was to identify "the jewels of our genome," that is, the DNA that makes us extraordinarily human.
Several scientists think the Chinese experiment did not yield any new information. One of these is Martin Styner, a computer scientist at the University of North Carolinam, one of the co-authors of the Chinese report:
“I don't think it's a good direction. Now we have created this animal which is different from how it should be. When we do experiments, we need to have a good understanding of what we are trying to learn, to help society, and that is not the case. One problem is that genetically engineered apes are expensive to create and care for. With only five modified monkeys, it is difficult to come to firm conclusions as to whether they are truly different from their peers in terms of brain size or memory ability. They are trying to understand brain development. And I don't think they're getting there ”are his words.
Although it will take some time to fully understand the results of these experiments, the prospect is truly disturbing. Planet of the Apes seems closer ...
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Francesca Mancuso
