-----Original Message----- From: Dave Land <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Killer Bs Discussion <[email protected]> Sent: Sun, 25 Sep 2005 21:33:33 -0700 Subject: Re: Brave New Genetic Frontiers
On Sep 25, 2005, at 4:12 PM, Leonard Matusik wrote: > How about this question... How probable would it be to artificially > INDUCE > a small population of blind cave fish to start growing eyes > again without > breeding it back to the parent Mexican Tetra line? > Could it be done in less > than 100 generations? You read the Wikipedia article: it described an experiment in which the lens from a sighted Astyanax mexicanus was implanted into the blind cave form of the fish, and the fish developed a complete eye. That's not saying, of course, that the blind fish regained vision, and it certainly does not imply that its offspring would be sighted, but it suggests that the genetic information for building eyes is quite present. This would make sense. It would be unlikely that an entire suite of genes would mutate but rather some tool box gene mutated. Maybe loss of site in this case is more than simply the result of genetic drift. Maybe being sightless affords these fish some selective advantage. As has been pointed out at the very least they do not have to build an expensive and adapatively useless organ. But maybe on a structural or biochemical level the loss of sigth may have been accompanied by some other enhancment. Not sure if this just confuses the topic, but that is, after all, my speciality. Dave "The Country of the Blind" Land _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
