A Texas research group has patented a genetic "branding iron" for indelibly marking strains of laboratory animals to foil would-be mouse rustlers, flynappers and other genetic claim-jumpers.
Dr Thomas Baldwin and his colleagues at Texas A&M University developed the system to identify organisms illegally bred from patented, genetically altered ancestors.
The potential economic importance of genetic branding was highlighted by a recent landmark patent issued to two Harvard scientists for a genetically altered mouse, the first genetically engineered organism ever patented in any country. The mouse strain is sold to laboratories.
Gerry Shadel, a biochemist at Texas A&M, says the "brand" is actually a gene that expresses itself in the animal carrying it by producing luciferase, the enzyme that makes fireflies glow.
In the Texas A&M scheme, the luciferase-making gene is inserted into a host animal's DNA along with whatever special-purpose genes a user may have engineered. Offspring of the strain thus contain not only the genes for which they were bred and patented, but the luciferase marker gene.
To determine whether a suspect mouse or other creature was bred from pirated ancestors, an investigator needs only treat some of the mouse's tissue with a chemical called an aldehyde. If the patented gene is present in the tissue, luciferase will also be present, and will glow.
