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- #85
littleoc
MyPTSD Pro
In a lab once we were working with fungi, genetically modifying them with something that "shuts off" DNA without changing it. Basically, giving the fungi a hard time.
A few of them seemed to lose their will to live. We looked at those genes and determined they were supposed to be helping with food consumption somehow. The digested sugars were only making it to certain steps.
One fungus found its way around that, though, so we cloned it and then destroyed parts of it to view its RNA and proteins (stuff the DNA made).
Then we grew several of them in an attempt to run the same experiment.
I remember walking in the lab one morning and noticing that the cloned fungi was growing strangely. They looked like they were sprouting branching hyphae -- their limbs -- toward each other, like they knew they weren't alone.
We'd had them go through mazes to find rewards before, so after the experiment -- and before they were all killed (legally required... they had been antibotic resistant by us inserting that gene) -- I put two on opposite ends of a maze. I didn't put any reward in the enclosure.
They found each other in the span of a day. But they were the same mating type (fungi have multiple genders) so they just kind of lingered.
It's weird but I still wonder about that. I never followed up on it. Life is very strange, even if you aren't human. Or an animal.
Poor potatoes.
A few of them seemed to lose their will to live. We looked at those genes and determined they were supposed to be helping with food consumption somehow. The digested sugars were only making it to certain steps.
One fungus found its way around that, though, so we cloned it and then destroyed parts of it to view its RNA and proteins (stuff the DNA made).
Then we grew several of them in an attempt to run the same experiment.
I remember walking in the lab one morning and noticing that the cloned fungi was growing strangely. They looked like they were sprouting branching hyphae -- their limbs -- toward each other, like they knew they weren't alone.
We'd had them go through mazes to find rewards before, so after the experiment -- and before they were all killed (legally required... they had been antibotic resistant by us inserting that gene) -- I put two on opposite ends of a maze. I didn't put any reward in the enclosure.
They found each other in the span of a day. But they were the same mating type (fungi have multiple genders) so they just kind of lingered.
It's weird but I still wonder about that. I never followed up on it. Life is very strange, even if you aren't human. Or an animal.
Poor potatoes.