Glowing Rabbits Caused By Fluorescent Jellyfish Proteins (VIDEO)

A team of researchers from Hawaii and Turkey successfully inject fluorescent jellyfish proteins in rabbit embryos that make them the glowing rabbits.

In daylight they are fluffy, cute and white. But turn off the switch and two of them will glow in the dark. They start to light up in vivid green. This litter of eight bunnies, including the glowing pair, was born earlier this month at the University of Istanbul. They were produced by a team of international researchers using a genetic manipulation technique developed at the University of Hawaii. During their embryonic phase, all eight rabbits were injected with a fluorescent protein from jellyfish DNA. And when the litter was born, two of them carried the “glowing gene”.

But why are scientist doing this? First, to show that the transgenesis technique developed in Hawaii is truly working in rabbits. And in the long run the team hopes to introduce another gene into female rabbits to collect the protein produced in their milk. This, the researchers say, could lead to newer, more efficient ways to produce medicines for humans.

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