Scientists Produce Transgenic Rabbits that Glow Green in the Dark

The green glowing creatures on the left portion of the above picture are not Green Lanterns from DC Comics but rabbits produced by Turkish scientists from the University of Istanbul and Marmara University in collaboration with University of Hawaii at Manoa. These glowing rabbits are produced by using an active transgenesis technique developed by the UH at Manoa scientists.

The rabbit embryos are altered by injecting jellyfish DNA for fluorescent protein in-vitro and reinserted into the mother rabbit to produce these glowing rabbits. Two out of eight rabbits born from this process were found to carry this gene for fluorescent protein, making them glow in the dark when exposed to black light (UV-A light). This study has shown that the UH at Manoa’s genetic manipulation technique works efficiently in rabbits and it can be used to introduce the genes of interest into female rabbits and collect the resulting protein from their milk. This approach can also be utilized for efficient production of medicines in near future.

Apart from these glowing rabbits, the same team has also worked on producing transgenic lamb which is expected to be born in the month of November this year.

Source: UH at Manoa ; Video: Buzz:60