Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts (23 page)

Exactly how this dog domestication began
: Various accounts of dog domestication are available in Adam Miklosi,
Dog Behaviour, Evolution and Cognition
(Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2007), and James Serpell, ed.,
The Domestic Dog
:
Its Evolution, Behaviour, and Interactions with People
(Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995). For an accessible exploration of the theory that dogs helped to domesticate themselves, see Stephen Budiansky,
The Covenant of the Wild
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999).

Their bodies and heads shrank
: Information on how and why wolves’ bodies changed comes from Miklosi,
Dog Behaviour, Evolution and Cognition
; Serpell,
The Domestic Dog
; Susanne Bjornerfeldt et al., “Relaxation of Selective Constraint on Dog Mitochondrial DNA Following Domestication,”
Genome Research
16 (2006): 990–94; and Helen M. Leach, “Human Domestication Reconsidered,”
Current Anthropology
44, no. 3 (2003): 349–68.

We created the … badger burrows
: “Mastiff,” American Kennel Club, accessed March 5, 2012,
www.akc.org/breeds/mastiff/
. “Dachshund,” American Kennel Club, accessed March 5, 2012,
www.akc.org/breeds/dachshund/
.

One year, the “Best in Show”
: These dogs were finalists in 2009.

most physically diverse species
: Taryn Roberts et al., “Human Induced Rotation and Reorganization of the Brain of Domestic Dogs,”
PLoS One
5, no. 7 (2010).

We’ve reshaped other species
: Jared Diamond, “Evolution, Consequences and Future of Plant and Animal Domestication,”
Nature
418 (August 8, 2002): 700–707.

consider a very curious cat
: Martha C. Gomez, “Generation of Domestic Transgenic Cloned Kittens Using Lentivirus Vectors,”
Cloning and Stem Cells
11, no. 1 (2009): 167–75.

a barn in Logan, Utah
: “Synthetic Silk,” Utah State University, accessed March 5, 2012,
http://sbc.usu.edu/htm/silk
; Adam Rutherford, “Synthetic Biology and the Rise of the ‘Spider-Goats,’”
The Guardian
, January 12, 2012,
www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/jan/14/synthetic-biology-spider-goat-genetics
; Geoffrey Fattah, “USU Goats May Be Key to One of the Strongest Known Substances,” July 10, 2011,
www.ksl.com/?nid=960&sid=16249521
. “The Goats with Spider Genes and Silk in Their Milk,” BBC News, January 16, 2012,
www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16554357
.

to use tiny electrodes
: S. K. Talwar et al., “Rat Navigation Guided by Remote Control,”
Nature
417, no. 6884 (May 2, 2002): 37–38. S. Xu et al., “A Multi-channel Telemetry System for Brain Microstimulation in Freely Roaming Animals,”
Journal of Neuroscience Methods
133, no. 1–2 (2004): 57–63.

Breakthroughs in materials science
: Noel Fitzpatrick et al., “Intraosseous Transcutaneous Amputation Prosthesis (ITAP) for Limb Salvage in 4 Dogs,”
Veterinary Surgery
40, no. 8 (2011): 909–25.

we can train monkeys
: M. Velliste et al., “Cortical Control of a Prosthetic Arm for Self-feeding,”
Nature
453 (June 19, 2008): 1098–1101; Jose M. Carmena et al., “Learning to Control a Brain-Machine Interface for Reaching and Grasping by Primates,”
PLoS Biology
1, no. 2 (2003).

we’ve saddled dog breeds
: L. Asher et al., “Inherited Defects in Pedigree Dogs. Part 1: Disorders Related to Breed Standards,”
The Veterinary Journal
182 (2009): 402–11; J. Summers et al., “Inherited Defects in Pedigree Dogs. Part 2: Disorders That Are Not Related to Breed Standards,”
The Veterinary Journal
183 (2010): 39–45.

turkeys with such gigantic breasts
: Alan W. Dove, “Clone on the Range: What Animal Biotech Is Bringing to the Table,”
Nature Biotechnology
23 (2005): 283–85.

60 percent of Americans
: Frank Newport et al., “Americans and Their Pets,” Gallup News Service, December 21, 2006,
www.gallup.com/poll/25969/americans-their-pets.aspx
.

1. Go Fish

But these swimmers are adulterated … first genetically engineered pets
: Alan Blake, in discussion with author, via telephone, January 14, 2010; Alan Blake, e-mail message to author, February 1, 2012; “GloFish Fluorescent Fish,” Yorktown Technologies, accessed February 1, 2012,
www.glofish.com/
; Alan Blake, “GloFish—The First Commercially Available Biotech Animal,”
Aquaculture Magazine
, November/December 2005, 17–26.

They isolated small stretches
: Annie C. Y. Chang and Stanley N. Cohen, “Genome Construction Between Bacterial Species
In Vitro
: Replication and Expression of
Staphylococcus
Plasmid Genes in
Escherichia coli
,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 71, no. 4 (1974): 1030–34; J. F. Morrow et al., “Replication of Transcription of Eukaryotic DNA in
Escherichia coli
,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA
71, no. 5 (1974): 1743–47.

Mice were up next
: J. W. Gordon et al., “Genetic Transformation of Mouse Embryos by Microinjection of Purified DNA,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
77, no. 12 (1980): 7380–84; J. W. Gordon and F. H. Ruddle, “Integration and Stable Germ Line Transmission of Genes Injected into Mouse Pronuclei,”
Science
214, no. 4526 (1981): 1244–46; F. Costantini and E. Lacy, “Introduction of a Rabbit β-globin Gene into the Mouse Germ Line,”
Nature
294, no. 5836 (1981): 92.

green fluorescent protein
: Information about GFP, its discovery and history, is from Roger Y. Tsien, “The Green Fluorescent Protein,”
Annual Review of Biochemistry
67 (1998): 509–44.

Zhiyuan Gong, a biologist
: Information on Gong’s goals and work is from Alan Blake, in discussion with author, Austin, Texas, December 4, 2010; B. Ju et al., “Faithful Expression of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) in Transgenic Zebrafish Embryos under Control of Zebrafish Gene Promoters,”
Developmental Genetics
25, no. 2 (1999): 158–67; Zhiyuan Gong et al., “Development of Transgenic Fish for Ornamental and Bioreactor by Strong Expression of Fluorescent Proteins in the Skeletal Muscle,”
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications
308, no. 1 (August 15, 2003): 58–63.

His team accomplished that feat
: Ju et al., “Faithful Expression of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP).” The National University of Singapore wasn’t the only university that had reinvented zebrafish; fluorescent versions of the creatures had also been created for various research projects at other labs around the world.

In subsequent research
: Gong et al., “Development of Transgenic Fish for Ornamental and Bioreactor.”

Crockett vividly remembers
: Richard Crockett, e-mail message to author, January 31, 2012.

In 1998, at the age of twenty-one
 …
dot-com crash
: Alan Blake, e-mail message to author, April 2, 2012.

As the two young men cast about
: Details about the early conversations that led to GloFish come from Alan Blake, discussion, December 2010, and in conversation with author via telephone, June 13, 2011.

In 2005, Gong’s team
: Z. Zeng et al., “Development of Estrogen-Responsive Transgenic Medaka for Environmental Monitoring of Endocrine Disrupters,”
Environmental Science & Technology
35 (2005): 9001–9008.

In 2010, scientists at China’s Fudan University
: H. Chen et al., “Generation of a Fluorescent Transgenic Zebrafish for Detection of Environmental Estrogens,”
Aquatic Toxicology
96 (2010): 53–61.

Despite these advances
: Stephen Smith, “S. Korea Uses Goldfish to Test G20 Water; PETA Protests,” CBS News, November 11, 2010,
www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20022538-503543.html

The pair founded Yorktown Technologies
: Details about the early days of Yorktown Technologies come from Blake, discussion, December 2010.

“The ornamental fish industry”
: Blake, discussion, January 2010.

When Herzog consulted
: Harold Herzog, “Forty-two Thousand and One Dalmatians: Fads, Social Contagion, and Dog Breed Popularity,”
Society and Animals
14, no. 4 (2006): 383–97; Hal Herzog,
Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat
(New York: HarperCollins, 2010), 117–21.

In antiquity
: For more on our ancestors’ interest in exotic animals, see Linda Kalof,
Looking at Animals in Human History
(London: Reaktion Books, 2007).

Even the humble goldfish
: Information about the early history of the goldfish comes from E. K. Balon, “About the Oldest Domesticates Among Fishes,”
Journal of Fish Biology
65, Supplement A (2004): 1–27.

As goldfish grew in popularity
: Ibid.

A 2007 study
: David L. Stokes, “Things We Like: Human Preferences Among Similar Organisms and Implications for Conservation,”
Human Ecology
35, no. 3 (2007): 361–69.

We’ve bred canaries
: Companion Animal Welfare Council,
Breeding and Welfare in Companion Animals
(UK: May 2006).

And before GloFish were even
: Blake, discussion, December 2010; Eric M. Hallerman, discussion, September 2011; Svein A. Fossa, “Man-Made Fish: Domesticated Fishes and Their Place in the Aquatic Trade and Hobby,”
Ornamental Fish International Journal
44 (February 2004): 1–16.

Scientists have created beagles
: S. G. Hong et al., “Generation of Red Fluorescent Protein Transgenic Dogs,”
Genesis
47 (May 2009): 314–22.

origin of the modern Labradoodle
: “Labradoodle History,” International Labradoodle Association, accessed March 6, 2012,
www.ilainc.com/LabradoodleHistory.html
; “About the Labradoodle,” International Labradoodle Association, accessed March 6, 2012,
www.ilainc.com/AboutTheLabradoodle.html
; Miriam Fields-Babineau,
Labradoodle: Comprehensive Owner’s Guide
(Allenhurst, NJ: Kennel Club Books, 2006), 9–10; Margaret Bonham,
Labradoodles: A Complete Pet Owner’s Manual
(New York: Barron’s Educational Series, 2007), 8.

“Through advances in genetic…”
:
Wildcard—Genetically Modified Pets
(Washington, DC: Social Technologies, 2007).

A company called Felix Pets
: “Felix Pets,” Felix Pets, LLC, accessed May 27, 2012,
www.felixpets.com/welcome.html
.

“If we’re going to come up…”
: Alan Beck, in discussion with author via telephone, November 11, 2009.

The Food and Drug Administration considers
: In 2009, the FDA issued a document outlining how it planned to regulate transgenic organisms: Center for Veterinary Medicine, U.S. Food and Drug Administration,
Guidance for Industry: Regulation of Genetically Engineered Animals Containing Heritable Recombinant DNA Constructs
(Rockville, MD: January 15, 2009), available at
www.fda.gov/downloads/AnimalVeterinary/GuidanceComplianceEnforcement/GuidanceforIndustry/UCM113903.pdf
. Alison L. Van Eenennaam et al.,
The Science and Regulation of Food from Genetically Engineered Animals
(Council for Agricultural Science and Technology, June 2011), available at
www.cast-science.org/publications/?the_science_and_regulation_of_food_from_genetically_engineered_animals&show=product&productID=21628.Hallerman
, discussion, February 2011.