That latest is very interesting. I imagine not long from now all sorts of CRISPR-modified butterfly "forms" will appear on Eghay.
A quick search revealed that one can buy CRISPR kits, though the $200 version seems very limited and not applicable to butterflies. But I imagine that those with a friend in a lab could turn them out.
Since the genetics are modified, and as I understand it limited to wing patterns, I'd presume that the offspring would be both viable and also exhibit the modified patterns.
It's only a matter of time that between regulations and home-modified strains, wild caught specimens will be invaluable.
Re: Butterfly wing patterns & "junk" DNA
Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2022 3:22 pm
by kevinkk
Exactly, the process is interesting, but modifying animals is dicey. Just like hybrids, meh.. I've hybridized Hyalophora before, but it was an afterthought.
Re: Butterfly wing patterns & "junk" DNA
Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2022 7:32 pm
by adamcotton
The difference with hybrids, at least between species, is that the offspring are normally infertile; but with CRISPR modified specimens their genes should be transmissible. These should never be allowed into nature, just as live specimens of non-native species and subspecies should never be released anywhere they don't belong.
Adam.
Re: Butterfly wing patterns & "junk" DNA
Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2022 11:07 am
by africaone
adamcotton wrote: ↑Mon Oct 24, 2022 7:32 pm
The difference with hybrids, at least between species, is that the offspring are normally infertile; but with CRISPR modified specimens their genes should be transmissible. These should never be allowed into nature, just as live specimens of non-native species and subspecies should never be released anywhere they don't belong.
Adam.
This not always true Adam. Sometimes hybridds occurs between well distinct species and give a new hybrid population (see my last paper on Charaxes. It is a motor for evolution (the phenomen seems more frequent in plants). The theoric definition are somùetimes not the natural ones. https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... Charaxinae
Re: Butterfly wing patterns & "junk" DNA
Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2022 4:15 pm
by adamcotton
africaone wrote: ↑Wed Oct 26, 2022 11:07 am
This not always true Adam.
Indeed, and that is why I said normally infertile.