- #1
- 2,486
- 9,719
TIL learned about a new (to me) method of mutagenesis:
(I was going to do a TIL but it seemed too Biology-y, so its like TIL, Biology version!)
Someone made a piece of protein called Mini Singlet Oxygen Generator (miniSOG).
It makes reactive oxygen species (ROS) upon blue-light illumination. They can cause a variety of mutations.
The miniSOG has been linked to a histone gene and expressed in C. elegans (model research animal; good genetics, good embryology/cytology).
This puts the reactive oxygen generator protein right next to the DNA, since it is linked to a histone which will likely be bound to DNA.
When properly illuminated with blue light, this line produces heritable mutations.
Since blue light is activating, one could mutagenize (using a laser through a microscope) only the gonadal cells, or only particular cells in an animal if desired.
This eliminates the use of high toxic chemicals (I've done this) with both their human safety and waste disposal issues. However, you light have to keep you line out of blue light (of certain levels?").
If you recovered mutations, you could cross the miniSOG gene out (of the population) in subsequent generations (by crossing in chromosomes that to replace it (the chromosome carrying the miniSOG gene) and screening molecularly (among the progeny) for the gene's presence (or better absence)).
This could in fact be initiated in screening crosses (crosses made to the mutagenized parent to generate F1's (and later generations) for scoring purposes (to identify mutants worth keeping)), decreasing the number of generations required.
I really like it when different areas of research (genetics, protein chemistry/biology, optics) come together to generate something unique and useful.
This was being used in a different technique (sadly behind a paywall) to drive germ-line integration (integration into chromosomes to ensure more dependable transmission) of micro-injected DNA.
(I was going to do a TIL but it seemed too Biology-y, so its like TIL, Biology version!)
Someone made a piece of protein called Mini Singlet Oxygen Generator (miniSOG).
It makes reactive oxygen species (ROS) upon blue-light illumination. They can cause a variety of mutations.
The miniSOG has been linked to a histone gene and expressed in C. elegans (model research animal; good genetics, good embryology/cytology).
This puts the reactive oxygen generator protein right next to the DNA, since it is linked to a histone which will likely be bound to DNA.
When properly illuminated with blue light, this line produces heritable mutations.
Since blue light is activating, one could mutagenize (using a laser through a microscope) only the gonadal cells, or only particular cells in an animal if desired.
This eliminates the use of high toxic chemicals (I've done this) with both their human safety and waste disposal issues. However, you light have to keep you line out of blue light (of certain levels?").
If you recovered mutations, you could cross the miniSOG gene out (of the population) in subsequent generations (by crossing in chromosomes that to replace it (the chromosome carrying the miniSOG gene) and screening molecularly (among the progeny) for the gene's presence (or better absence)).
This could in fact be initiated in screening crosses (crosses made to the mutagenized parent to generate F1's (and later generations) for scoring purposes (to identify mutants worth keeping)), decreasing the number of generations required.
I really like it when different areas of research (genetics, protein chemistry/biology, optics) come together to generate something unique and useful.
This was being used in a different technique (sadly behind a paywall) to drive germ-line integration (integration into chromosomes to ensure more dependable transmission) of micro-injected DNA.
- via: (mutations --> DNA repair mechanisms turn on --> integration more likely to occur)