Bionic hands are not stuff for comic books and Sci-Fi movies anymore because, with 3D tech, one can print a plastic hand. But University of Kentucky researchers are looking to make the sci-fi fantasy plausible. The researchers have gathered a full axolotl genome. Axolotl is a salamander common in a lake close to Mexico City.
Researchers studied the replication of axolotl in regeneration models.
Co-principal investigator and professor in the institution’s Spinal Cord and Brain Injury Research Centre Randal Voss said, “Axolotls have long been prized as models for regeneration. It’s hard to find a body part they can’t regenerate: the limbs, the tail, the spinal cord, the eye, and in some species, the lens, even half of their brain has been shown to regenerate.”
Despite their small size and apparent simplicity, axolotls and humans share many genes. Although having a genome 10x the size of a human’s, axolotl has a complete complement of chromosomes.
The axolotl genome is so large that genetic study is extremely challenging. This genetic data is described as a “mountain of jigsaw pieces” by associate professor Jeremiah Smith at the university’s Department of Biology and a co-principal investigator. He claims that acquiring the genome in the exact sequence is the key to progressing with genome function and structure analysis and revealing the processes that bestow on axolotl their mystical powers.
Scientists create a genome for the first time through genomic linkage mapping
The human genome program provided scientists the means to duplicate material for other creatures, but the computing challenges for organisms with large genomes rendered the approach impractical. That is until Smith and Voss used genetic linkage mapping to their advantage. They devised a method for swiftly and efficiently putting the axolotl genome in the proper sequence. It’s the first time a genome of this size has been accurately constructed.
Smith and Voss exhibited their newfound expertise by quickly accumulating data that revealed an axolotl with a cardiac dysfunction gene. According to the researchers, this capability has the ability to create new illness models for humans.
