• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

“Extraordinary” Mouse Created Using Gene That’s Older Than Animal Life Itself

November 19, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

In an incredible breakthrough, scientists have created a mouse using ancient genetic tools older than animal life. By taking a gene from single-celled lifeforms and introducing it into mouse cells, researchers generated stem cells, which, when injected into a developing embryo, helped give rise to a living, breathing mouse.

Hundreds of millions of years ago, before multicellular organisms had evolved, simple, single-celled organisms were blobbing about on planet Earth. Some of these, called choanoflagellates, are considered to be the closest living relatives of animals. Their genomes, the new research finds, contain versions of the genes Sox and POU – these are known to drive the formation of stem cells in mammals, and until now were thought to be exclusive to animals, having been notably absent in our unicellular relatives.

Advertisement

Their discovery in a single-celled organism therefore shakes up everything we thought we knew about stem cells and their evolution. It’s an unprecedented finding in and of itself, but the researchers took it a step further, using the genes to reprogram mouse cells.

“By successfully creating a mouse using molecular tools derived from our single-celled relatives, we’re witnessing an extraordinary continuity of function across nearly a billion years of evolution,” study author Dr Alex de Mendoza said in a statement. “The study implies that key genes involved in stem cell formation might have originated far earlier than the stem cells themselves, perhaps helping pave the way for the multicellular life we see today.”

The team introduced choanoflagellate Sox genes into mouse cells, replacing their existing Sox2 genes – and, in doing so, triggering the cells to become induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These cells have the potential to develop into any cell type in the body.

When they injected their iPSCs into a developing mouse embryo, they produced what is known as a chimera – an animal whose body is composed of cells that are genetically different from one another, containing two distinct sets of DNA. In this case, the mouse displayed traits from both the donor embryo and the iPSCs, with black fur patches and dark eyes, confirming that the ancient genes had influenced the animal’s development.

Advertisement

It’s impressive, especially given the simple origins of the genes. It seems early lifeforms evolved their own ways of maintaining pluripotency, long before multicellular organisms, and stem cells, came into being.

“Choanoflagellates don’t have stem cells, they’re single-celled organisms, but they have these genes, likely to control basic cellular processes that multicellular animals probably later repurposed for building complex bodies,” explained Dr de Mendoza.

Aside from just being fascinating, the discovery could inform future advances in regenerative medicine, in which stem cells play an integral part.

“Studying the ancient roots of these genetic tools lets us innovate with a clearer view of how pluripotency mechanisms can be tweaked or optimised,” co-author Dr Ralf Jauch added.

Advertisement

The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Cricket-Manchester test likely to be postponed after India COVID-19 case
  2. EU to attend U.S. trade meeting put in doubt by French anger
  3. Soccer-West Ham win again, Leicester and Napoli falter
  4. Was Jesus A Hallucinogenic Mushroom? One Scholar Certainly Thought So

Source Link: “Extraordinary” Mouse Created Using Gene That’s Older Than Animal Life Itself

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • DNA From Greenland Sled Dogs – Maybe The World’s Oldest Breed – Reveals 1,000 Years Of Arctic History
  • Why Doesn’t Moonrise Shift By The Same Amount Each Night?
  • Moa De-Extinction, Fashionable Chimps, And Robot Surgery – No Human Required
  • “Human”: Powerful New Images Mark The Most Scientifically Accurate “Hyper-Real 3D Models Of Human Species Ever”
  • Did We Accidentally Leave Life On The Moon In 2019 – And Could We Revive It?
  • 1.8 Million Years Ago, Two Extinct Humans Had One Of The Gnarliest Deaths In History
  • “Powerful Image” Of One Of The World’s Rarest Tigers Exposes The Real Danger In Taman Negara
  • Evolution, Domestication, And A Lot Of Very Good Boys: How Wolves Became Dogs
  • Why Do Orcas Have White Spots Near Their Eyes?
  • Tomb Of First King Of Ancient Maya City Discovered In Belize
  • The Real Reason The Tip Of Your Tape Measure Wiggles Like That
  • The “Haunting” Last Message From NASA’s Opportunity Rover, Sent From Inside A Planet-Wide Storm
  • Adorable Video Proves Not All Gorillas Hate The Rain. It Might Even Win One A Mate
  • 5,000-Year-Old Rock Art May Show One Of Ancient Egypt’s First Rulers
  • Alzheimer’s-Linked Protein Levels “20 Times Higher” In Newborn Babies – What Does This Mean?
  • Americans Were Asked If They Thought Civil War Was Coming. The Results Were Unexpected
  • Voyager 1 & 2 Could Be Detected From Almost A Light-Year Away With Our Current Technology
  • Dams Have Nudged Earth’s Poles By Over 1 Meter In The Past 200 Years
  • This Sugar Could Be A Cure For Male Pattern Baldness – And It’s Been In Our Bodies All Along
  • “Cosmic Immigrants”: Daytime Star Seen In 1604 May Be An “Alien Type Ia Supernova”
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version