{"id":30641,"date":"2025-03-08T05:27:59","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T23:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=30641"},"modified":"2025-04-11T09:04:38","modified_gmt":"2025-04-11T03:34:38","slug":"woolly-mice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/woolly-mice\/","title":{"rendered":"Woolly Mice"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Woolly Mice Latest News\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p>Scientists have successfully edited mouse DNA with genes from the woolly mammoth, creating the <strong>world\u2019s first furry \u201cwoolly mice.<\/strong>\u201d This breakthrough provides insights into how ancient species adapted to extreme cold.<\/p>\n<h2>About Woolly Mice<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Genetic Modifications: <\/strong>The woolly mice have been genetically engineered by modifying seven genes that code for traits like hair length, thickness, and colour. These modifications include genes such as <strong>FGF5 for longer hair <\/strong>and <strong>MC1R for a golden coat<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Purpose: <\/strong>The creation of woolly mice serves as a proof-of-concept for the feasibility of gene editing in de-extinction efforts. It demonstrates the ability to recreate complex genetic combinations that took nature millions of years to develop<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>How did the Scientists Create Woolly Mice?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Identifying Mammoth Genes:<\/strong> Scientists first compared mammoth DNA with their closest living relative, the Asian elephant, to identify genetic differences related to hair length, thickness, texture, colour, and body fat.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Selecting Relevant Traits: <\/strong>They selected 10 mammoth gene variants linked to these traits and matched them with similar known genetic variants in laboratory mice for targeted gene editing.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Gene Editing in Mice:<\/strong> Using <strong>CRISPR technology<\/strong>, scientists made eight precise edits to modify seven genes in the mice, incorporating mammoth-like traits responsible for a woolly coat and cold adaptation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Result: <\/strong>The genetically modified mice were born with thicker, longer fur, confirming that the selected mammoth genes influenced hair growth and cold resistance, as predicted by computational analysis.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Woolly Mice FAQs<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q1.<\/strong> What are woolly mice?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans. <\/strong>US company Colossal Biosciences has announced the creation of a \u201cwoolly mouse\u201d \u2014 a laboratory mouse with a series of genetic modifications that lead to a woolly coat.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q2. <\/strong>Which animal is woolly?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans. <\/strong>The woolly mammoth, an ancient elephant species, lived in Europe, Asia, and North America around 300,000 to 10,000 years ago.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q3. <\/strong>Have scientists created a woolly mammoth?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans. <\/strong>Scientists have not created a woolly mammoth but genetically modified mice with mammoth-like traits, such as longer, wavy hair.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-sci-tech\/woolly-mammoth-mice-new-research-extinct-9871684\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">IE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Woolly Mice are genetically modified mice with mammoth genes, designed to study cold adaptation in extinct species<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":30642,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-30641","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}