Seventy - colored fish
Scientists have created a mutant fish with skin of 70 colors
Scientists have created a genetically modified danio-rerio fish, whose skin is painted in all colors of the rainbow – and 63 more colors. Such diversity will help biologists track the development, movement and regeneration of individual cells in the body. The unusual animal is reported in the journal Developmental Cell (Chen et al., Multicolor Cell Barcoding Technology for Long-Term Surveillance of Epithelial Regeneration in Zebrafish).
The multicolored fish was obtained thanks to the genes that are responsible for red, blue and green fluorescent proteins. Ken Poss from Duke University managed to include these genes in the part of the genome responsible for the coloring of skin cells (in the embryo).
The adult fish looked red, but in the ultraviolet rays its skin sparkled with 70 colors. "We didn't know that such patterns would appear on the skin. When you modify animal genes, you cannot predict a certain result," Poss said.
A drawing from the press release of Duke University Technicolor Zebrafish Reveal How Skin Heals - VM.
About 100 copies of genes are present in each skin cell of a fish. Their distribution by color is completely random: in one cell there may be, for example, 70 red, 20 green and 10 blue proteins. The number of combinations of basic colors reaches up to five thousand, although the resolution of the Poss microscope allows you to distinguish only 70 shades.
Now, with the help of "colored" fish and its offspring, scientists will be able to track how cells move, working on skin regeneration and injury treatment. Biologists have already conducted one such experiment: they cut off the tip of the fin and tracked how and at what speed the cells of neighboring areas "go" to the injury site and close it.
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23.03.2016