Question

Anybody know anything about knockout mice?

Answer 1

"Knockout mice" are what we call mice that have had one of their genes "knocked out," or "turned off."

Genes affect our bodies. Our appearances.
We know this, yes?
Different genes are responsible for different parts and functions of our body.

Sometimes, scientists see a gene,
and they have no idea what that gene's job is.
They have no idea what it does.

So, they take a mouse,
they find the gene, which they know nothing about,
and they deliberately inactivate the gene. They turn the gene off.
And then they look at how it affects the mouse.

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Let me give you a simple example:

Let's say that scientists know about a gene, called "EX."

They have no idea what EX does.

So they take a mouse,
find its EX gene,
and they turn it off.

Then, the scientists look at the differences,
between the KNOCKOUT mouse, and NORMAL mice.

If the NORMAL mice have BROWN FUR,
and the KNOCKOUT mouse has WHITE fur,
then we know that the EX gene was responsible for making brown fur.

You see?

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So again,

if we see a gene,
and we have no idea what it does,
then we can turn off the gene,
and pay attention to how the organism is affected.

By doing this,
we can find out what the mystery gene was responsible for.

Mice, who have been genetically engineered,
so that one of their genes has been turned off,
are called KNOCKOUT MICE.

Answer 2

Thanks alot