Scientists Dive Into Axolotl Genome, Looking For Secrets To Regeneration (gizmodo.com) 24
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Its adorableness aside, the Mexican axolotl is a salamander of particular interest to scientists. On the molecular level, the animal seems to have a cheat code for life: It can regenerate its limbs and vital organs, an ability researchers are desperate to better understand for medical applications. Now, geneticists have gotten a clearer view of the smiling salamander's genome, rendering it on the chromosomal scale. The research was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Understanding a genetic structure in complete detail takes a lot of time, far longer than it takes to first report the mapping of a genome, as we did with humans in 2003 and the duck-billed platypus in 2008. Secrets remain shrouded in those purportedly finished genetic codes, so geneticists keep tinkering. Decrypting the axolotl's genome in particular was a tall order; where bits of a human genome charged with making a protein may span hundreds to thousands of base pairs, in an axolotl, it takes hundreds of thousands of base pairs. Nevertheless, the complete axolotl genome was announced in 2019 by the same team who published the recent research.
The recent paper specifically looked at how the genome is folded away inside the animal on the molecular level and where the DNA sequences that regulate genes are located in relation to the places where gene transcription starts. That's remarkable when you consider the scale and extreme compactness of the folding; a human DNA strand is about 6 feet when stretched out, but an axolotl's would be over 30 feet. All that genetic material is being sequestered in the cells of an animal 200 times smaller than the average human -- it's a mind-boggling example of efficiency in packing, all on a microscopic scale. Why it matters: The research will be important for seeing if the ability to regenerate could ever be activated in humans.
"The work has ordered the sequenced pieces of axolotl genomic DNA sequence in the correct order, as it is on the chromosome," Elly Tanaka, a biochemist at the Vienna BioCenter's Institute of Molecular Pathology, said in an email. "This is important because, in all animals with vertebrae, genes are turned on and off by control sequences that are actually lying pretty far away from the gene itself."
The recent paper specifically looked at how the genome is folded away inside the animal on the molecular level and where the DNA sequences that regulate genes are located in relation to the places where gene transcription starts. That's remarkable when you consider the scale and extreme compactness of the folding; a human DNA strand is about 6 feet when stretched out, but an axolotl's would be over 30 feet. All that genetic material is being sequestered in the cells of an animal 200 times smaller than the average human -- it's a mind-boggling example of efficiency in packing, all on a microscopic scale. Why it matters: The research will be important for seeing if the ability to regenerate could ever be activated in humans.
"The work has ordered the sequenced pieces of axolotl genomic DNA sequence in the correct order, as it is on the chromosome," Elly Tanaka, a biochemist at the Vienna BioCenter's Institute of Molecular Pathology, said in an email. "This is important because, in all animals with vertebrae, genes are turned on and off by control sequences that are actually lying pretty far away from the gene itself."
Understanding the Axolotl is 5 years away... (Score:5, Interesting)
I've been reading about the Axolotl and how it's been studied to see if it's regenerative capabilities could be applied to humans for literally decades - doing a quick search, I found a reference to these studies going back to 1976: https://books.google.ca/books?... [google.ca]
Like fusion or ascendancy of the Linux desktop, understanding the Axolotl is 5 years away and always has been.
it's disappointing because I always wanted to heal after an accident or epic battle against my nemesis like Wolverine.
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I think you're far too pessimistic, and are ignoring all of the scientific advances of the last couple of decades.
First, it's kind-of hard to figure out how the regeneration works without having the genome mapped. And when did that huge advance happen? A year ago.
Just today we got an article here about using CRISPR to regulate gene expression. You either missed it, or you don't understand how huge that actually is. Without changing the underlying genome, that will allow scientists to turn on and off genes.
Re: Understanding the Axolotl is 5 years away... (Score:2)
Glad you brought up the CRISPR article. The ability to edit methylation on a genomic scale has been one of the biggest stumbling blocks to research into regeneration and in-vitro gametogenesis. So the pessimism is silly, given steady progress being made. Humans spent hundreds of years trying to build flying machines, it took a lot of work to get make it possible. The Wright brothers had to build on the aerodynamics, materials, and engine research that took literally hundreds of years to figure out.
The botto
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Like fusion or ascendancy of the Linux desktop, understanding the Axolotl is 5 years away and always has been.
Actually, our understanding has progressed significantly and so have our tools. I think a more realistic timeline would be the better part of a century before we really understand it. However, applying that understanding to humanity is a completely different goal and will likely be a century or more after that.
As for fusion, we've actually made some astounding progress in the last decade. A fully functional reactor may be decades off still but that doesn't make it any less worth pursuing.
Ironically, the
It's been understood for over a millenium (Score:2)
The Aztecs figured it out *long* before European contact.
The little monsters are soul stealers.
Avoid their eyes, or yours become theirs . . .
And see Cortazar's "Axolotl". Unfortunately, the English translations of his works lose the tone.
hawk
Finally! (Score:5, Funny)
We’re one step closer to filling out Spider-Man’s rogues gallery in real life [wikipedia.org].
Here come the Axolotl tanks! (Score:2)
Re: Here come the Axolotl tanks! (Score:2)
If humans, or even mice, can use the same process (Score:2)
If humans, or even mice, can use the same process as the axolotl, then I'd be really surprised.
Just for example, axolotls and their relatives and fish can regrow lost teeth. IIUC, fish do it with a modification of the way they regrow scales. Mammals lost that a long time ago in the process of developing several different shapes of teeth for different purposes. So *IF* you could transplant the axolotl mechanism for tooth regrowing into people, the shape of the teeth would be a simple sharp cone, possibly
Re: If humans, or even mice, can use the same proc (Score:2)
Re:If humans, or even mice, can use the same proce (Score:4, Interesting)
Right. If I understand the summary right, the axolotl has a radically different DNA architecture to enable its regenerative abilities (rather than a small set of "regeneration genes"). This means it could never be useful for humans. Nobody's going to re-organize the entire human genome with protein encoding that's orders of magnitude more complex, and definitely not in a living person to regenerate lost limbs. It's not something you can "patch in" with CRISPR.
For human regeneration, it'll be more useful to figure out how to revert adult cells into a pluripotent state and coax them into becoming whatever new cells are needed. It might also be possible to stash away some stem cells from newborn kids in case they need spare parts later. Baby teeth have stem cells that could possibly be used to grow new teeth, too.
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If you're going the stem cell route, you probably don't even need existing stem cells. The ways that already exist to covert, say, skin cells into pluripotent stem cells are pretty good. The benefit of existing stem cells is that they won't have reproduced as often (yet) and every split is a chance for a new mutation to dominate.
Anus (Score:2)
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I want my penis cut off and doubled to at least 6 inches.
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...and then re-attached?
Regeneration through electricity (Score:2)
Re: Regeneration through electricity (Score:2)
We already have this (Score:2)
To some extent... powered ground up pig bladders, apply the dust to a lopped off finger and it can grow back, including the nail. If all it takes is activation from the pig bladder cells, we have the ability built in, just missing the activator.
regeneration (Score:1)
The sunk cost fallacy works both ways (Score:1)
Axolotl Questions (Score:2)