Cloned, Glow in the Dark Cats

eldavojohn writes "Well, you can finally get genetically modified cloned animals. South Korean scientists have shown it is possible to alter a protein via therapeutic cloning to 'artificially [create] animals with human illnesses linked to genetic causes.' The images of these animals are amazing. This research was headed by Kong Il-keun, the first person in the country to clone cats in 2004." There is always the chance that this is a hoax, but far too amusing to ignore.

Amazing?

[Enoxice]

You really call that image "amazing"? Hardly. Hell, give me 2 cats and 2 flashlights and I'll come up with a better image.

Also, I'm putting my money on hoax.

Black light cats

[xPsi]

Because of the red fluorescence protein in their skin cells, the three Turkish Angola kittens look reddish under ultraviolet light, the researchers said.

Calling them "glow in the dark" may be overstating the case. More like black light cats. Nothing like having a 70s poster that can scratch back while listening to Dark Side of the Moon.

Re:hrmmmm

[Rakishi]

To add to what the other reply said, here is a picture of glowing mice:
http://www.forbes.com/2001/07/26/0726gfp.html [forbes.com]

Even the relatively short hair of the mice blocks out almost all of the glow.

Re:hrmmmm

[RingDev]

The red cat is either a rather good photoshoping, or the real deal. If the cat were being lit by an external source, the fur would reflect the light. But the fur appears to be blocking the light.

My best guess for the picture though is that they used a UV/Low Light amplification filter. Then they pointed a UV light at the cats, and stuck some kind of obstruction between the light and the left cat. Thus the right cat and the tips of the left cat's ears appear green, while the left cat and the left side of the right cat's body appear black (save for the UV florescence off the left cat).

The fact that it was shot with a Low Light filter, and further compressed via JPG, means that there is a lot of noise and artifacting in the picture. That much distortion could easily mask modifications. So I would say it's either the real deal, or a fake done by someone with a lot of time and experience in producing quality fakes.

-Rick

Re:OB Big Bang Theory

[WillAffleckUW]

Well, a friend of mine, a Japanese scientist here at the UW, she did make a glow in the dark worm, with a biochemical switch that was fairly easy to activate, so having a glow in the dark goldfish night light isn't that difficult.

You just have to manipulate the embryo with a tag bioluminescent marker.

I can see a definite market for them.

For the simple reason

[DrYak]

Also, I'm putting my money on hoax.

For the simple reason that cats are hard to breed (require much more food and space than small rodents) and hard to clone (usually the higher up in the evolution tree, the harder to clone).
That's why they aren't very popular research subject,

Usually in research, nowadays, specially when genetic engineering is available :
- You use mutated insects, yeast, etc. If you only wan to study some genetic stuff.
- If you absolutely need mamals, you use mice. If no mouse has what you need, you need a mutated/cloned mouse, like some humanised strains. Far easier to breed and feed than bigger mamals.
- If you definitely need human-sized organs, you use swines. And use humanisation mutation if you need.

Most other animals are getting lot less popular by the day.

The other reasons to use specific genetic types of specific animal is to give better control and reproductibility to research.
It's easier to replicate some research and find the same results if you that the authours used a specific given strain of mice, rather than some random animal.

In such circumstance, cloning genetically engineered cats has little purpose.
Appart maybe from the "I haz successfully cloned a lolcat !" (to prove that a notoriously hard target was achieved).
Or if counting on some commercial application (successfully cloning transgenic cat : easier to duplicate cat with interesting genes such less likely to cause allergy. Instead of breeding both sex and hope that the mutation il pass to the next generation, you just make copies of 1 successful cat.