Chinese scientists claim to have created the world’s first entirely reprogrammed mouse.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) claims to have discovered a revolutionary approach for programmable chromosomal fusion in the laboratory, successfully producing mice with genetic mutations "that occur on a million-year evolutionary scale."
According to Phys.org, the discoveries could offer insight into how chromosome rearrangements—the neat bundles of structured genes delivered in equal numbers by each parent, which align and trade or combine features to make offspring—influence evolution.
"After more than 100 years of artificial breeding, the laboratory house mouse has preserved a standard 40-chromosome karyotype—or the complete picture of an organism's chromosomes," said Li Zhikun, a researcher at CAS's Institute of Zoology.
"However, karyotype alterations produced by chromo...