Glow-in-the-dark monkeys

A genetically engineered monkey has for the first time passed an introduced "alien" gene to its offspring.

Since breeding is cheaper and easier than genetic engineering, the researchers hope the breakthrough will herald development of monkeys that are better models of human disease than genetically modified mice.

Erika Sasaki of the Central Institute for Experimental Animals in Kawasaki, Japan, gave marmosets a jellyfish gene that made them glow green under UV light.

Virus courier

To engineer the "parents", Sasaki injected monkey embryos with a virus carrying the gene for the green fluorescent protein.

Sasaki then placed embryos carrying the gene into seven surrogate mothers. Of these, four gave birth, producing 1 male and 4 female marmosets that carried the green fluorescent protein (GFP) gene.

Later, when the male baby was sexually mature, he successfully fathered a single offspring which also glowed green, showing that it had inherited the GFP gene. One of the females also produced IVF embryos carrying the gene.

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