Dog Strange Can Lights in the Dark

Dog Strange Can Lights in the Dark

A dog named Tegon have the ability to glow in the dark. Tegon was cloned dogs produced by South Korean scientists to study human diseases, like Alzheimers and Parkinsons.

"Tegon can shine under ultraviolet light if given the antibiotic doxycycline," said Lee Byeong-chun, chairman of the research team from Seoul National University (SNU).

Tegon who was born in 2009 was not the first cloned dog produced SNU. In 2005 there Snuppy, whose name is born from an egg cell 2000 trial which later grew to 1,000 embryos. Of that total, only one tail produced Snuppy the Afghan hound.

The same process is then implemented to make Tegon, a type of female beagle dogs (hounds small). The difference, Tegon is the first cloned dog can shine in the dark with a light green color. Uniquely, its rays can dihidupmatikan if Tegon given certain antibiotics through their food.

Ability to turn on and turn off the color gene is important in research. Scientists can monitor the effects of a substance is added to the gene. For example, beta-amyloid gene known to cause damage to nerve function in Alzheimers disease. With these genes turn on and monitor neurological function afterwards, can yield clues about the development of Alzheimers.

"Making Tegon opens new horizons given an injection of genes that can make this puppy shine can be replaced with the genes causing fatal diseases in humans," said Byeong-chun. This study deliberately using dogs as experimental animals because there are about 268 diseases that can be equally diidap by humans and dogs.

The results were published in international journals Genesis. Scientists spent five years and research costs by 3.2 billion won to make the dog and do various tests required for verification purposes. 

Source: National Geographic Indonesia / Ni Ketut Susrini