Chem Brooke Bonfiglio
Current Events 9/24/09
With Genetic Gift, 2 Monkeys Are Viewing A More Colorful World
By: Nicholas Wade
This article, With Genetic Gift, 2 Monkeys Are Viewing A More Colorful World, is mainly about the vision in which monkeys have and why they have limited vision. Tests were recently done in the lab of the Neitz on two squirrel monkeys, Dalton and Sam, to detect their vision limitations. The Neitzes currently have endowed these two male squirrel monkeys with the ability to see the world in full color vision. Male squirrel monkeys like, Sam and Dalton only have two color pigments unlike humans who have three opsins or color pigments. The Neitzes with colleagues were able to give them color vision by using the technique of gene therapy to give monkeys, in the cone cells of their retina’s, a missing red pigment. For example after this test was done in a few months Sam and Dalton were fully capable of telling an orange from a lemon. They of course could not report they saw in color but through performances on eye-color test we know their vision is now full colored. The way in which this third opsin affected the monkey’s vision is, the extra opsin would have changed the signal affected cones and sends a message from the retina to the visual cortex of the brain. In other words the extra opsin would be transferred through the mind and alerted in the visual part of the brain.
Another scientist, a molecular biologist Dr. Nathans said this monkey experiment would help researches understand the analyzing of color in the monkey brain. And after they had figured this out then move onto how the cells in the monkeys’ visual cortex respond to the new signals being sent from the retina.
Lastly this experiment was to figure out a way in which new world monkeys could have color vision. New world monkeys had ancestors who were from about 150 million years ago who split of from old world monkeys before full color developed therefore causing monkeys like Sam and Dalton difficulty in having more than two visual pigments. Although there is a chance of the two pigments male monkeys only receive one either green or red or a blue shade depending on what gene is inherited. On the other hand female monkeys have full vision because the red green opsin lies on chromosome X which females inherit automatically the green/red pigment because one from each parent and the blue pigment because it is on another chromosome. Unlucky for males their genes only allows them to inherit one variant of the green/red pigment because they get passed on one X chromosome.
This article affects humanity in many ways in which you would never think an article about a monkey could. Primates are a significant part of our evolution and therefore by learning about the under developments and in capabilities monkeys like the spider monkeys Sam and Dalton have we learn about our development and what was done differently. From this article scientist can see how we were able to develop full color vision unlike monkeys and why only certain genes are passed on. I personally believe this article can help the understanding of why some features of ours more sophisticated with proof now.
This article although I believed contained important information it was poorly written. I believe Nicholas Wade used many advanced vocabulary words in which I did not know and therefore had difficulty comprehending the entire article. I also realized the amount of scientific terminology there was in here and how I knew minimal amounts. The article also involved little about the two monkeys in which they have a large picture of and contain in the title. I was upset by this because the article was purely lab related and experimental and no interesting relation to the anything else in the world. So without the relation to anything else I had a hard time reading this without being confused a majority of it.
Wade, Nicholas . "With Genetic Gift, 2 Monkeys Are Viewing a More Colorful World." New York Times 21 Sep. 2009: 1-3. Web. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/22/science/22gene.html?_r=1&ref=science>.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
After reading Brooke’s review I found many accepts that I liked. First, even though there was a lot of information in this review, it was not too wordy. She was also able to capture why monkeys vision is important to humans and our development. In all, Brooke picked a very interesting article and was able to make a very accurate review of it.
ReplyDeleteThere were a couple things that could have been done to improve this review. In some parts of the review I feel that she could have explained the meaning of some of the words a little more. Also, the title of the article should have been in quotations.
From this review I learned that even in the same type of animal, the gender of the animal can effect it’s vision.
in Brooke's presentation i learned very interesting facts and information. First off, she explained her article very clearly and accurately. Secondly, she worded it in ways that were to the point and easy to follow. lastly, she made good eye contact with the class and spoke well.
ReplyDeletealthough there were very few negatives to this review, Brooke could have explained what eye pigment is. And second, she also could have said how they made this discovery.
One thing i would like to learn more about it if it only works on monkeys.