mice mutant registration laws...
Life isn't all about squid; mice also matter. I've been reading about the MRL mouse, a lab-bred strain which has been discovered to have an unusual property: amazing powers of regeneration. They weren't bred for that, though; instead, they were selected for large size, and were then discovered to have a defect in the cell death gene fas, which made them a useful model for autoimmune research—they had excessive proliferation of lymphatic cells.
Science blogger Pharyngula warns:
This is an exciting model for studying mechanisms of regeneration that might someday be applicable to us. One other weird thought: I'd like to see a combination of the MRL regenerating mouse with the Mighty Mouse somatostatin mutant—then we'd have a Wolverine-like superhero mouse!
Good lord, what if they joined up with the Irriatiated Mutant Cockroaches?! They'd be unstoppable!
(Actually go read the pharyngula article, it's an amazing accidental trait.)
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