A Biologist's Job

[Xar]

Just for fun... I've started some of the standard tests my mice will go through for my Ph.D. thesis. The subjects in question are reproduced below for your pleasure:





These two little gals (who are also sisters, and are both slightly more than 1 month old, by the way) are being weighed every day, pictures are taken of them every 10 days, and their strength is also tested every day by using a machine to calculate how strongly they pull at a metal wire which they are made to hold in their paws. The results are supposed to tell us something about their genetic makeup and how the mutations we inserted in them affect their muscular strength and their weight. The results will be helpful in elaborating a model related to hereditary myasthenia (muscle weakness).

And all this, just by evaluating how strong several young mouse girls (of which these are the first two) are...

[Prebe]

Funny, when you google superman gene, the first hit you get is Gene Hackman in Superman movies!

[wayfriend]

The results are supposed to tell us something about their genetic makeup and how the mutations we inserted in them affect their muscular strength and their weight.

Will you also test them for x-ray vision ("find the cheese!"), flying ("get the cheese on top of the fridge!"), and fridgi-breath ("freeze the cheese!")???

[Prebe]

www.robertburns.org/works/75.shtml

[Avatar]

Very interesting Xar. I look forward to seeing more about this.

--A

[Prebe]

So do I. The reason I sought for Superman gene is because I remember reading a headline about it in Science or Nature. I couldn't seem to find anything but an Arabidobsis gene though

[Xar]

The good news are that at 50 days old, the mice are still alive and kicking... the black one weighs about 17 g. and the brown one about 7,5 g.; when the brown one curls up, she's the size of a coin (!)...

[Avatar]

Hold on, what exactly were these mutations that you inserted?

And inserted how? Manually? Virally?

--A

[Xar]

I didn't insert mutations, these mouse lines were already established when I came to the lab... basically, they have to do with neuromuscular functions. Technically, the two mice should be very weak, and there's a chance they'll become weaker and weaker as time goes by. The mutations were inserted manually, in the old-fashioned way (lots of DNA work, stem cells, and much breeding).

[Avatar]

Ah, thanks.

--A