MadSci Network: Genetics
Query:

Re: Can you combin genes from a dog and a human?

Date: Fri Apr 13 14:48:36 2001
Posted By: Jennifer Phillips, Grad student, Developmental Genetics/Biology, University of Oregon
Area of science: Genetics
ID: 986501049.Ge
Message:

Dear Tom,

Thank you for writing! The answer to the first part of your question is yes. We have technology which enables us to combine DNA from two (or more) different organisms: plant or fungus + animal, fly + mouse, bacteria + human, and many other combinations have already been made. Organisms which contain some DNA from another species are called TRANSGENIC organisms, a name you may have heard on the news recently. A transgenic mouse, or corn plant may not look any different from just a regular old mouse or corn plant, but because transgenic organisms contain a little bit of DNA from another species, they may be able to perform some novel genetic function, which can, in the case of the mouse, help to researchers to study disease, or help the corn plant resist disease, or grow larger than other, unmodified corn plants. To learn more about transgenic organisms (also called Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs), you can visit:
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/tc0020e.html

However, your question isn’t just asking whether DNA from two species can be combined, but whether combining the DNA will enable you (theoretically) to create a new species altogether—a “dogman”. The answer to this question is NO. The chief reason that this doesn’t work is that humans and dogs aren’t very closely related, evolutionarily speaking, and their genes wouldn’t really know what to do once they got together. So if, for example, you were to attempt to combine DNA by trying to fertilize human eggs with dog sperm, or vice versa, embryonic development wouldn’t proceed very far, if at all.

Believe it or not, this is a pretty popular type of question these days. I’ve received two other similar inquiries in the past few months. If you would like to read these other questions, and my responses, here are the links:
Can you combine a rabbit and a chincilla?
Can you combine a bird and a human

If, after reading this answer and the others I’ve listed, you still have some questions, please write to me again, I’ll be glad to help if I can.

Jen


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