[ExI] Smarter monkeys through Genetic Engineering?

[Dylan Distasio]

Great, just what we need...Pandemics, riots, and now this! ;-)

https://youtu.be/idsxgLjGXGI

On Fri, Jun 19, 2020 at 12:33 PM John Clark via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> A gene called "ARHGAP11B" that is found in humans and in no other animal
> has long been thought to be at least partially responsible for humans
> having an extremely large brain with a high degree of cortical folding. All
> other primates have a similar gene, but a point mutation happened between
> 500,000 and 1.5 million years ago and a single C was changed to a G in the
> human version. In yesterday's issue of the journal Science researchers
> report than when Genetic engineering was used to insert the human gene
> ARHGAP11B into the fertilized egg of a small monkey (a marmoset ) the
> result was a fetus with about 45% more neurons in the neocortex than a
> normal fetus and 3 times as many glial cells. A marmoset gestation period
> is 152 days but because it had a human gene in it the fetus was aborted
> after just 101 days due to ethical guidelines, so it's not known how such
> an animal's behavior would change if it was allowed to come to term.
>
> Human-specific ARHGAP11B increases size and folding of primate neocortex
> in the fetal marmoset
> <https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/06/17/science.abb2401>
>
> John K Clark
>
>
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