Researchers have intentionally genetically modified a common beetle to develop a third functional eye, right in the middle of its forehead. It builds on previous research in which they caused a beetle to grow a third eye accidentally. Both studies were led by Indiana University postdoctoral researcher Eduardo Zattara.
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In the original research, the team switched off a gene that is involved in the development of the heads of dung beetles, which caused quite drastic changes to the structure of their heads. The beetles lost their horns – and developed a compound eye in the middle of their heads.
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The work of Zattara’s team, by comparison, was much simpler. They set out to intentionally grow a third eye in two types of scarab beetle, Onthophagini and Oniticellini, by wiping out just a single gene, the same head development gene from their earlier research. The third eyes the beetles developed actually resulted from fused pairs of eyes.
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The research could help understand how organs develop and become part of a body – which knowledge, in turn, could prove useful in the development of artificial lab-grown organs, for both research and medical purposes.
The team’s paper has been published in the journal PNAS.
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