{"id":35520,"date":"2022-05-29T11:27:15","date_gmt":"2022-05-29T18:27:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/?p=35520"},"modified":"2022-05-29T11:27:16","modified_gmt":"2022-05-29T18:27:16","slug":"gene-editing-experiment-turns-fluffy-hamsters-into-aggressive-mutant-rage-monsters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/gene-editing-experiment-turns-fluffy-hamsters-into-aggressive-mutant-rage-monsters\/","title":{"rendered":"Gene-editing experiment turns fluffy hamsters into \u2018aggressive\u2019 mutant rage monsters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A team of scientists in the US have accidentally created overly-aggressive mutant hamsters following a gene-editing experiment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using the controversial CRISPR technology, researchers at Northwestern University were examining a hormone called vasopressin and its receptor, Avpr1a.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They opted to try and remove the latter from a group of Syrian hamsters, with the expectation it would increase bonding and co-operation between the lovable little critters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s because Avpr1a is understood to regulate things like teamwork and friendship as well as dominance and bonding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their expectation proved to be wrong. Very wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We were really surprised at the results,\u2019 said Professor H Elliot Albers, the lead researcher on the study<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We anticipated that if we eliminated vasopressin activity, we would reduce both aggression and social communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018But the opposite happened.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The academics found the adorable bundles of fluff turned into mutant rage monsters<\/a> exhibiting \u2018high levels of aggression towards other same-sex individuals\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All hamsters, regardless of genotype or sex, exhibited aggression (including chasing, biting, and pinning) when exposed to a nonaggressive, same-sex conspecific in a neutral arena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Albert admitted the results of the experiment were a \u2018startling conclusion\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scientists chose to experiment with Syrian hamsters because, unlike mice, they have a social organisation that\u2019s similar to humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Albert explained: \u2018Even though we know that vasopressin increases social behaviours by acting within a number of brain regions, it is possible that the more global effects of the Avpr1a receptor are inhibitory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018We don\u2019t understand this system as well as we thought we did.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A team of scientists in the US have accidentally created overly-aggressive mutant hamsters following a gene-editing experiment. Using the controversial CRISPR technology, researchers at Northwestern University were examining a hormone called vasopressin and its receptor, Avpr1a. They opted to try and remove the latter from a group of Syrian hamsters, with the expectation it would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":754,"featured_media":35521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cww7news.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/3.jpg?fit=700%2C383&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35520"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/754"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35520"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35520\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35522,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35520\/revisions\/35522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cww7news.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}