Scientists have succeeded in altering the patterns on a butterfly’s wings by tweaking just one or two genes, an advance that may help understand how colour patterns and shapes evolved in the insects.
By using the new method of CRISPR, a gene editing tool, researchers at Cornell University in the US cut out a gene known as spalt, and produced a butterfly lacking the large round markings known as eyespots.
In another experiment, they removed a gene known as distal—less and produced more and larger eyespots. The experiments also produced changes in other parts of the wing.
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