Three Parents Contribute to Experimental Human Embryo

gihan_ripper writes "It sounds like the storyline from a cheesy film, but a human embryo has been created using the genetic material from one man and two women. A team from Newcastle University, England, developed the technique in the hope that it could be used to prevent diseases caused by faulty mitochondria. Their experiment started with two ingredients: first, a left over (and 'severely abnormal') embryo from an IVF treatment; second, a donor egg from another woman. The donor egg has all but the mitochondrial DNA removed, then a nucleus from the embryo is inserted into the egg. Effectively, this results in a mitochondria transplant. 'While any baby born through this method would have genetic elements from three people, the nuclear DNA that influences appearance and other characteristics would not come from the woman providing the donor egg. However, the team only have permission to carry out the lab experiments and as yet this would not be allowed to be offered as a treatment.'"

Obligatory Office Space Comment

[show me altoids (1183399)]

Two chicks at once!

Re:Obligatory Office Space Comment

[operagost (62405)]

Killjoy scientists. They even find ways to take the fun out of three-ways!

Re:

[lthown (737539)]

"threesome" was all I could think of - kinda strange way to go about it though.

Poor kid.

[Rob T Firefly (844560)]

There's a kid who's going to spend their whole life dreading Mother's Day.

Re:Poor kid.

[notnAP (846325)]

I can see it now...

Teacher: Timmy, you've put the apostrophe in the wrong place again... It's Mother's Day, not Mothers' Day...

Timmy: But Miss Jones...

Or how about...

Timmy: Mr. Therapist, I think I have an Oedipal urge to sleep with my mothers...

Therapist: Your libido is fine, Timmy... That'll be $150.

Can and Should

[Shadow Wrought (586631)]

Just because they can, should they? Maybe I'm too cynical, but in a world that's already overpopulated it seems counter-productive in the long run to figure out how to make humans the most expensive way possible. I probably need coffee and a Blank Expression [2600.com].

Re:Can and Should

[notorious ninja (1137913)]

From the article --

"It could ensure women with genetic defects do not pass the diseases on to their children.

The technique is intended to help women with diseases of the mitochondria - mini-organs that are found within individual cells. "

They most definitely should. :) Sure, the world may be overpopulated, but people want to have their own children, and ensuring that they're healthy seems like a good thing to me...

Re:

[gardyloo (512791)]

Sure, the world may be overpopulated, but people want to have their own children, and ensuring that they're healthy seems like a good thing to me...

Yes, but when the one leads to the impossibility of the other...

Re:

[unbug (1188963)]

Maybe I'm too cynical, but in a world that's already overpopulated it seems counter-productive in the long run to figure out how to make humans the most expensive way possible.

Hmm, if you want to have fewer humans, then of course you want to make making them as expensive as possible.

Re:

[Touvan (868256)]

The populations that can afford to reproduce this way are already reproducing at near zero birth rates (or negative in many cases). Birth rates seem to be decreasing in the whole world as well. I think this is fine.

There's a bunch of stuff on wikiepedia [wikipedia.org] about it, I'm referring mostly to stuff I've read or heard recently, but can't quote (don't remember the specific sources), so take it with a grain of salt. ;-)

Re:

[gardyloo (512791)]

also every single continent has huge expanses of wilderness. Call me when all those are gone and the number of people per square mile is above 30.

Dibs not Antarctica!

Re:

[somersault (912633)]

So what you're saying is, it's our human duty to each have two wives? Anything else is surely just asking for our kids to be living in a world filled with disease and squalor? I think I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter, and just call me if you need any funding for getting into office.

Re:

[somersault (912633)]

Point taken ;) Not really planning to get married anytime soon, in fact at the moment I'm spending way too much time and money on improving my experience on Test Drive Unlimited (over £1000 so far on HDTV, steering wheel + sound rocker chair, can't see any wife being too happy with that, especially when I already have a decent enough car IRL :P )

Like something out of science-fiction

[CRCulver (715279)]

It's funny to see this happening with mankind already, since science fiction has long dreamt up advanced human or alien races with triune families, e.g. the Soft Ones from Asimov's The Gods Themselves [amazon.com] , and in Larry Niven's Known Space universe it's one of the social innovations that only comes about in five hundred years or so.

Re:

[mea37 (1201159)]

Biologically three "parents" are involved, but I wouldn't forsee this leading to a social structure of a three-parent family. Given a case where that structure already exists (insert fundamentalist LDS joke here if you must), I could see a technique like this being adopted; but I don't see how the social structure would follow from the technique. To a certain extent, it seems like the point of many fertility-related treatments is to decouple the biology from the social family structure.

Re:

[somersault (912633)]

Just leaves you with a small wiener. Well, that's what I took from the film at least - seemed to be the main theme?

asexual reproduction - sexual reproduction ?

[jbeaupre (752124)]

Since mitochondria are only passed by the mother, effectively asexual reproduction of those genes, I assume there's less genetic mixing to keep it healthy (I've heard dad's does get in on rare occasions). Would combining mitochondrial DNA sources instead of replacing be of any benefit?

Re:

[snl2587 (1177409)]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought this technique was for cases in which the mitochondrial DNA of the mother was already faulty. Unless combining the DNA eliminates the faultiness, I don't think it will help. Unless you meant using the dad's?

Re:

[jbeaupre (752124)]

You're correct, this study was replacing faulty DNA. But if it's just a segment that is faulty, why replace everything? In many cases, the mitochodria may be worthless, so complete replacement is necessary. But in some cases, having the old one there is like keeping a backup system around. One gets half the job done, the other completes it. Granted, there won't be any DNA swap, so you miss any chance of dumping bad genes over generations. But I still wonder if there could be a net benefit.

Re:

[clonan (64380)]

That doesn't really work with Mitochondria.

Mitochondria are effecticly self contained bacteria with their own genome, rRNA, and other support structures as if they were real cells. Infact mitochondria replicate like cells inside the cytoplasm. Now they also requier some proteins that are encoded and imported from the nucleus, but they don't release anything except carbon dioxide, water and ATP.

Even if one mitocondria can only do half of the kreb cycle while it's neighbor can do the other half, they still

Re:

[jbeaupre (752124)]

I should have said jobs, not job. Mitochondria do several things, not just energy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondria#Function [wikipedia.org]. So what's to stop one set from doing some and the other doing the others?

Re:

[clonan (64380)]

All the other "jobs" are simply side effects of the energy conversion function (calcium storage and membrane potential etc). The one exception to that is the example of ammonium degridation. This is controlled from the neculus NOT the mitochondria. If the mitochondria can't accept proteins from the nucleus then it will die. But if it can accept anything, it will accept everything with the correct targeting sequence.

Therefore if the gene for ammonia processing is messed up in the genome, it wouldn't matt

Re:

[HTH NE1 (675604)]

You're correct, this study was replacing faulty DNA. But if it's just a segment that is faulty, why replace everything?

Because it's easier to put your CPU (nucleus) into a new motherboard (cell) than to find and fix the fault in the old motherboard (mitochondrial DNA).

It's gonna suck for those tracing maternal ancestry through mitochondrial DNA unless both women's mito-DNA become public record.

Re:

[Zebraheaded (1229302)]

Mitochondrial DNA is always passed on by only the mother, this happens similarly in most metazoans. Mitochondrion present in sperm are marked with ubiquitin so that theyre destroyed once released into the zygote. As for genetic recombination being benificial...not really. Mitochondrial DNA only code for something like 35 genes. Some (like ribosomal RNA) would be completely dibilitating if defective, others not so much. Most of the proteins used in the mitochondria are actually coded in nuclear DNA, so

Re:

[fahrbot-bot (874524)]

Would combining mitochondrial DNA sources instead of replacing be of any benefit?

It limits your power from the Force to Gardening.

Awesome!

[eln (21727)]

The next step is to implant the embryo into Arnold Schwarzenegger. Get ready for some madcap fun!

Re:

[Pojut (1027544)]

Worst. Movie. Ever.

Re:

[CarpetShark (865376)]

The next step is to implant the embryo into Arnold Schwarzenegger.

No these are embryos. You must be thinking of steroids.

Re:

[HTH NE1 (675604)]

Twins [imdb.com] meets Junior [imdb.com]?

Totally Tubular Threeway

[Doc Ruby (173196)]

One man and two women... the American (het male) dream. Leave it to a bunch of geeks to turn it from sex into a test tube.

Interesting Movie Remake....

[penguin_dance (536599)]

It would make for an interesting remake of "Bob and Carol, Ted and Alice."

Nooooooo!!!

[unbug (1188963)]

God, I hope they aren't going to patent threesomes now!

Re:Nooooooo!!!

[everphilski (877346)]

Oh, to be in the courtroom when they exhibit the "prior art" :)

Re:

[moderatorrater (1095745)]

Like that's going to effect the lives of anyone on this site.

What would a research scientist do...

[gillbates (106458)]

If he had a million dollars?

Two eggs at the same time...

Re:

[JCSoRocks (1142053)]

I tell you what I'd do man. two chicks at the same time man.

I think if I were a millionaire i could hook that up too, 'cause chicks dig dudes with money.

well, not all chicks

the type of chicks that'd double up on a dude like me would.

You're welcome. [youtube.com]

Interesting alternative application?

[Loibisch (964797)]

IANAB (biologist) but couldn't there be another application for this:
Say a couple want to have a child but they know they will pass on a serious genetic defect.
The article suggests that the baby will have DNA from all three parties and says appearance and "other characteristics" will be like the 'real' mother. But maybe it could also receive the "healthy" DNA strings from the donor egg thereby not passing on the genetic malfunction?

I don't know if this is even scientifically possible, so correct me if I'm w

Re:

[Loibisch (964797)]

from TFA:

It could ensure women with genetic defects do not pass the diseases on to their children.

Probably should have read it properly first :P
Nothing to see here, move along. :)

Hmmm...

[crankyspice (63953)]

Which joke-reference to make, Serpentor, or Kaaaaahn...

The Gods Themselves

[sm62704 (957197)]

This reminds me of the extra-dimentional aliens in Isaac Asimov's novel The Gods Themselves [wikipedia.org]:

The second part takes place in the parallel universe. This part is remarkable because Asimov rarely describes aliens, preferring tales of humans and robots, but this time he goes into considerable detail.

His aliens have three "semi-mature" sexes (known, for their presumably amorphous form, as soft ones) with fixed roles for each sex, and one "mature" form, (known as hard ones).

Rationals - Called "lefts", rationals ar

Re:

[somersault (912633)]

His aliens have three "semi-mature" sexes (known, for their presumably amorphous form, as soft ones) with fixed roles for each sex, and one "mature" form, (known as hard ones).

I'm sorry, but that's just too easy so I'm not even gonna make an effort. Asimov rocks though :p Poem by Asimov on cloning [commonplacebook.com]

SPOILER ALERT

[HisMother (413313)]

The parent post contains a spoiler for this excellent book; don't read the parent post if you haven't already read the book named in the title!!!

Seems to make some assumptions...

[mea37 (1201159)]

To be clear, I'm not one of these "we must not play God, we're messing around with things we don't understand" types. At the same time, I do wonder if we understand the principles with which we're working as well as the write-up suggests. On the other hand, that is why we run experiments...

The write-up seems to carry some assumptions from our current model of how DNA and genetic inheritance works. "the nuclear DNA that influences appearance and other characteristics would not come from the woman providin

Mitochondria don't influence appearance?

[TheLink (130905)]

The child's features should still be similar to the parents not contributing the mitochondria, but how about the child's size?

Would the growth of certain features be influence by the mitochondria?

I thought they already did this.

[Seakip18 (1106315)]

I recall that they have been planning this for a while. Check out http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn6547-scientists-seek-to-create-threeparent-babies.html [newscientist.com]. Funny enough, this was banned in the US, though this is a great way to treat mitochondrial disorders while still keeping the kid from being "the milk-mans" baby....err "milk-womans"?

Is this legal?

[Bob-taro (996889)]

The embryos then began to develop normally, but were destroyed within six days.

Okay, so apparently as part of an experiment, just to see if it could be done, they fertilized human eggs, let the embryos develop for a few days, then killed them. Doesn't that bother ANYONE? Did I read that wrong? It sounds like they're creating people for experiments just to kill them! Yeah, I know a lot of you don't believe an embryo is a person, but I'm mainly posting for those who share my view but might have missed that aspect of the story.

Of course it's legal

[mbessey (304651)]

Not that this will necessarily make you feel any better about the ethics of the situation, but the embryo they used was a reject from in-vitro fertilization. It was going to be destroyed anyway, regardless of whether the experiment was performed. It's a fact that the majority of embryos produced for IVF are never brought to term.

Re:This should be good

[mrxak (727974)]

Assuming it has the right number of chromosomes, and all the basic genetic material is in the right places, it shouldn't be any different than anyone else. It just won't have whatever genetic disease they're trying to eliminate.

If it's unethical, it's because this is a slippery slope to picking the color of your kid's eyes, and how fast they can run. Think about Gattaca.

Re:

[calcapt (975466)]

This is nowhere near designer baby capabilities that were prominently featured in GATTACA. This is simply the swapping out of somatic nuclear/genetic material from one cell to the other, taking advantage of the fact that mitochondrial lineages propogate clonally. This isn't a genetic disease in the sense that you're thinking; it's not a disease found in the human genome. It's a disease isolated to the genome of one of our organelles ("organs" for our cells).

Quick bio recap: I don't know if you remember much

Re:

[jbeaupre (752124)]

It's obviously all underground. You risk a lot as a terrorist organization if your lair isn't secret. Likely the entrance is on the other side of the mountain. But there is still a visible clue: Mr. Burn's power plant. That's a lot of juice for a small town. The excess is being diverted to the lair.