Gene-Edited Dogs

Dogs are very unique creatures. There are many kinds that range in size and personality; and yet they have become man's closest companion. Dogs serve many purposes in society from being a close friend to someone in need to fighting alongside a warrior in battle. Today, they also serve an investigative scientific purpose.

Liangxue Lai, a researcher and Regenerative Biologist, is studying dogs for the purpose of medical research in human diseases such as Parkinson's and muscle dystrophy. Lai recently conducted an interesting experiment. He took 60 Beagle embryos, and only 27 of them were born. Two out of the 27 puppies had gene-edited DNA using the CRISPR/Cas9 mechanism, where the gene that produced myostatin was disrupted. Myostatin is a muscle growth inhibitor. Only one of those two puppies (Tiangou) exhibited the gene-editing effect though, growing twice as large in muscle mass as the others.  According to Lai, the goal of the experiment was to cause muscle diseases in these Beagles and observe the correlation to human muscular illnesses for biomedical research.

I hope Lai and his colleagues gain a greater understanding of muscular diseases through their experiments. I find this study very interesting. I do not agree with creating gene-edited species, however. I understand I am not a biomedical researcher, nor do I know of the prevalent medical issues or how they can be solved; but today I am witnessing scientists seeking to alter life from the way it was previously designed.


Main Article: Genetically Engineered Dogs

Other Article: Gene Editing from Nature

Build a Bigger, Better Beagle

In China, researchers are using CRISPR/Cas9 to editing the genes of beagles to create dogs that have more muscle mass.  The altered gene, Myostatin, gives bully whippets and Belgian Blue cattle their bulky muscle without any known cause of health problems.  Liangxue Lai of the South China Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine in Guangzhou, China injected the gene editor into 35 beagles’ embryos.  27 puppies were born of which only 2, a male Hercules and a female Tiangou, had the edited genes. The female has both copies of the myostatin gene mutated in all of her cells developed bigger thigh muscles by at 4 months but Hercules didn’t have the double mutation in all of his cells and didn’t develop as much by 4 months.  He did pack on more muscle as they matured.  Even thou only a low number of the puppies were born with the mutations Lai believe the editor is not very efficient in dogs but the process just needs to be optimized.  Next Lai and colleagues hopes to make mutations that mimic genetic changes like Parkinson’s disease and hearing loss in human. They also don’t plan on making designer pets for sale using this technique; it’s for biomedical research only since beagles are very close to human in terms of metabolic, physiological and anatomical characteristics.

I think it’s amazing that China and the US use dogs for research needs; I have heard about rats and other animals but not beagles.  Instead of making designer pets my first concern is that this process will eventually be used to give humans bigger and more efficient muscles.  I can imagine the next generations of athletes trying to be larger by having their genes edited with bull genes. The research need is perfect but we do not need to make altered humans to be us stronger or to gain animalistic abilities.

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