In the case of Australia’s 200-plus frog species, the technology could help make the amphibians resistant to a deadly disease introduced to the country in the 1970s.<\/p>\n
Six (or possibly seven) species of Australian frogs are believe to have gone extinct at least partly due to the chytrid fungus.<\/p>\n
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The highly virulent fungus causes the deadly disease chytridiomycosis which damages a frog’s skin, changing how it breathes and absorbs water.<\/p>\n
“There’s just no way of really protecting frogs around the world against this disease,” University of Melbourne zoologist Stephen Frankenberg said.<\/p>\n
“Although you can treat the individual frogs … you can never get rid of the fungus from the environment.”<\/p>\n
So Dr Frankenberg is instead looking to use genetic engineering to stop frogs getting infected in the first place.<\/p>\n
And it involves alpacas.<\/p>\n
Woolly solution to a hairy problem<\/p>\n
Alpacas (Lama pacos), a woolly herd animal from the Peruvian mountains, have become an unassuming star of medical research in the creation of new vaccines and treatments.<\/p>\n
This is because they \u2014 and other members of the camelid family, such as camels and llamas \u2014 have a rare and useful ability.<\/p>\n
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Alpacas have a unique immune system that creates “nanobodies” which can be used in vaccine development. (iNaturalist: Scott Ramos<\/a>, Alpaca<\/a>, CC BY-NC 4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n Tiny immune particles derived from an alpaca’s blood can provide protection against diseases in other species.<\/p>\n When an alpaca is infected with a pathogen, its body creates a specialised type of very small antibody, called a “nanobody”, that lends itself to being produced by something called a “transgene”.<\/p>\n Transgenes are genes that are taken from one organism \u2014 like a plant, bacterium or animal \u2014 and then introduced into the DNA of a different one.<\/p>\n So a transgene taken from an alpaca and introduced into another species will create nanobodies in that other species.<\/p>\n This work of snipping genes is possible with genetic tools like CRISPR-Cas9, which is basically a pair of molecular scissors allowing precise cuts in DNA.<\/p>\n University of Melbourne zoologist Stephen Frankenberg. (ABC Science: Peter de Kruijff)<\/p>\n Dr Frankenberg’s plan is to infect alpacas with chytridiomycosis to see what antibodies the alpaca makes in response.<\/p>\n “That can then be used in a genetic engineering solution to chytrid infection,” he said.<\/p>\n “Then for each frog species, you could simply inject that [engineered] fragment into the eggs of that frog species \u2026 and then breed them up in captivity.”<\/p>\n This would give the frogs an inheritable gene that could spread via interbreeding once they’re released into the wild.<\/p>\n “It would be like a cookie-cutter kind of a solution that could be dropped into the genome of any frog species, potentially, because there are so many species that are impacted by chytrid disease,” Dr Frankenberg said.<\/p>\n At this stage, Dr Frankenberg is trying to find the right transgene, and then the first lab tests will be done with invasive cane toads (which are vulnerable to chytrid fungus).<\/p>\n US gene technology company Colossal is bankrolling the project with $3 million over three years.<\/p>\n The ambitious attempt to de-extinct a frog<\/a><\/p>\n Nearly two decades ago, a small group of scientists in Newcastle came surprisingly close to resurrect the extinct gastric brooding frog.<\/p>\n Colossal funds other genetic projects for living species, but also aims to use genetic engineering to create proxies of extinct animals such as mammoths and dodos.<\/p>\n Earlier this year the company claimed it had brought back a long-extinct species of large American wolf, the dire wolf (Aenocyon dirus).<\/p>\n Specifically, it had made 20 changes to 15 genes of grey wolves (Canis lupus) to make them resemble the dire wolf<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now, the US company has set its sights on the extinct “Tasmanian tiger” or thylacine.<\/p>\n De-extinction tech for conservation?<\/p>\n The last known thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) died in captivity in 1936.<\/p>\n Andrew Pask with a skull of a thylacine that was killed during Tasmania’s bounty program. (ABC Science: Peter de Kruijff)<\/p>\n The University of Melbourne’s Andrew Pask, which is also Colossal’s chief biology officer, wants to see thylacines “roaming wild across all of Tasmania” again.<\/p>\n “We know that if there’s a big apex predator around, it excludes things like cats from regions,” he said.<\/p>\n “And then, ultimately, I might be alone on this, but I would love to see [thylacines] across all of mainland Australia.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Professor Pask has been using historical samples from bones and preserved specimens to work out the complete set of DNA or genome of the extinct species.\u00a0<\/p>\n A study on the genome is expected to be published later this year.<\/p>\n With genome in hand, Professor Pask’s lab will attempt to make millions of genetic edits to a living thylacine relative<\/a>, such as the fat-tailed dunnart (Sminthopsis crassicaudata), to recreate a thylacine.<\/p>\n Fat-tailed dunnarts are like a “lab rat” for carnivorous marsupial research. (ABC Science: Peter de Kruijff)<\/p>\n The thylacine de-extinction project could also help conserve other native animals.<\/p>\n Toad-munching quolls<\/p>\n Professor Pask said thylacine funding had helped him achieve more for marsupial conversation in the past four years than he had in the previous 20.<\/p>\n “Where [gene editing] will really have an impact for our world is \u2026 conservation,” he said.<\/p>\n Dr Frankenberg recently edited dunnart cells (which he studied for the thylacine project) to make them resistant to the toxin of the invasive cane toad.<\/p>\n The northern quoll has seen declines across its range in WA, NT and Queensland. (iNaturalist: duke_n<\/a>, northern quoll<\/a>, CC BY-NC 4.0<\/a>)<\/p>\n He says this technique could be used for a species like the northern quoll (Dasyurus hallucatus<\/a>), which has been dying out after the arrival of the cane toad.<\/p>\n “It could be a couple of years really to get to the point of being able to produce quolls that are resistant to cane toads,” Dr Frankenberg said.<\/p>\n “It’s such a tiny edit and something that could arise naturally in the wild.”<\/p>\n Zoologist Stephen Frankenberg with a fat-tailed dunnart at the University of Melbourne. (ABC Science: Peter de Kruijff)<\/p>\n Colossal also claims to have developed an artificial womb prototype which could help it breed engineered thylacines without the need of a surrogate mother.<\/p>\n And there could be benefits for other marsupials.<\/p>\n “If we can do that, then all of a sudden we have an ability to produce <\/strong>en masse marsupials using this [artificial womb],” Professor Pask said.<\/p>\n “That could be a game-changer for us in Australia because we know we are really impacted by adverse weather events, particularly bush fires \u2026 where you can lose hundreds of marsupials from a particular landscape.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We would like to have the ability to be able to create 100 koalas or 100 brushtail possums or whatever it might be to rewild back into that landscape.”<\/p>\n This could theoretically be done with biological material from a storage facility called a biobank.<\/p>\n Museums Victoria conservation geneticist Joanna Sumner. (Museums Victoria: Eugene Hyland)<\/p>\n Museums Victoria has teamed up with the University of Melbourne to build a biobank that freezes cell samples from Australia’s unique species to safeguard against extinction.<\/p>\n Biobank founder Joanna Sumner, a conservation geneticist for the museum, said the project had thousands of samples from 77 different species after four years of operation.<\/p>\n “We are using a lot of techniques that have been used in human biology for years,” Dr Sumner said.<\/p>\n “But now the technology is better, it’s cheaper, and we’re able to apply these techniques to wildlife.”<\/p>\n What could go wrong?<\/p>\n Deakin University ecologist Euan Ritchie said new conservation tools such as genetic editing were exciting, but they come with the risk of unintended consequences.<\/p>\n Tinkering with northern quolls could have a ripple effect on the broader ecosystem, he said.<\/p>\n “What if all of a sudden because cane toads are edible to all these northern quolls, you end up with huge numbers of northern quolls?<\/p>\n “And how might they affect other species that also share that environment?”<\/p>\n Fixing one problem, Professor Ritchie said, could end up creating another.<\/p>\n Introducing biological controls in Australia has had its share of successes (rabbit viruses) and catastrophic failures (cane toads)<\/a>.<\/p>\n But Dr Frankenberg said these risks could be mitigated by introducing gene-edited northern quolls on islands first, to study their effect on the ecosystem there.<\/p>\n “And then that might progress to releases on the mainland,” he said.<\/p>\n Listen to the full episode of Artificial Evolution about <\/strong>gene editing wild animals for conservation<\/strong><\/a>, and <\/strong>follow the podcast for more<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Frogs that are part alpaca and other genetically engineered wildlife could soon be running and hopping around Australia.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":222522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[120797,120799,120805,120796,4740,120803,34130,120795,34128,61982,57191,120801,120804,50,120802,109389,12743,120798,120800,120806],"class_list":{"0":"post-222521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-abc-radio-national","9":"tag-alpaca-frog","10":"tag-animal-reproduction","11":"tag-artificial-evolution","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-dasyurid","14":"tag-de-extinction","15":"tag-genetic-editing","16":"tag-genetic-engineering","17":"tag-genetic-modification","18":"tag-gm","19":"tag-gmo","20":"tag-marsupial","21":"tag-news","22":"tag-northern-quoll","23":"tag-reproduction","24":"tag-science-friction","25":"tag-thylacine","26":"tag-transgenetics","27":"tag-veterinary-science"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115194833428418303","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
Australian frogs suspected extinct with chytrid fungus as a factor<\/tr>\n \n Mountain mist frog (Litoria nyakalensis)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Peppered tree frog (Litoria piperata)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Southern gastric brooding frog (Rheobatrachus silus)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Northern gastric brooding frog (Rheobatrachus vitellinus)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Sharp snouted day frog (Taudactylus acutirostris)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Mount Glorious day frog (Taudactylus diurnus)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Northern tinker frog (Taudactylus rheophilus)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n <\/p>\n
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