Maybe the test case is to delete one chromosome and insert another a chromosome in a fruit fly. Only 4 pairs of chromosomes, already used for genetic modifications with CRISPR
Goal = complete the insertion and still develop a normal fruit fly. I bet this is a fairly inexpensive experiment, within reach of many people on LessWrong
You probably wouldn’t be able to tell if the fruit fly’s development was “normal” to the same standards that we’d hold a human’s development to (human development is also just way more complicated, so the results may not generalize). That said, this sort of experiment seems worth doing anyways; if someone on LW was able to just go out and do it, that would be great.
That implies the ability to mix and match human chromosomes commercially is really far off
I agree that the issues of avoiding damage and having the correct epigenetics seem like huge open questions, and successfully switching a fruit fly chromosome isn’t sufficient to settle them
Would this sequence be sufficient?
1. Switch a chromosome in a fruit fly Success = normal fruit fly development
2a. Switch a chromosome in a rat Success = normal rat development
2b. (in parallel, doesn’t depend on 2a) Combine several chromosomes in a fruit fly to optimize aggressively for a particular trait Success = fruit fly develops with a lot of the desired trait, but without serious negative consequences
3. Repeat 2b on a rat
4. Repeat 2a and 2b on a primate
Can you think of a faster way? It seems like a very long time to get something commercially viable
It seems fairly straightforward to test whether a chromosome transfer protocol results in physical/genetic damage in small scale experiments (e.g. replace chromosome X in cell A with chromosome Y in cell B, culture cell A, examine cell A’s chromosomes under a microscope + sequence the genome).
The epigenetics seems harder. Having a good gears-level understanding of the epigenetics of development seems necessary, because then you’d know what to measure in an experiment to test whether your protocol was epigenetically sound.
Chromosome selection seems like the most consequential idea here if it’s possible
Is it possible now, even in animals? Can you isolate chromosomes without damaging them and assemble them into a viable nucleus?
Edit: also—strong upvoted because I want to see more of this on LW. Not directly AI but massively affects the gameboard
A working protocol hasn’t been demonstrated yet, but it looks like there’s a decent chance it’s doable with the right stitching together of existing technologies and techniques. You can currently do things like isolating a specific chromosome from a cell line, microinjecting a chromosome into the nucleus of a cell, or deleting a specific chromosome from a cell. The big open questions are around avoiding damage and having the correct epigenetics for development.
Maybe the test case is to delete one chromosome and insert another a chromosome in a fruit fly. Only 4 pairs of chromosomes, already used for genetic modifications with CRISPR
Goal = complete the insertion and still develop a normal fruit fly. I bet this is a fairly inexpensive experiment, within reach of many people on LessWrong
You probably wouldn’t be able to tell if the fruit fly’s development was “normal” to the same standards that we’d hold a human’s development to (human development is also just way more complicated, so the results may not generalize). That said, this sort of experiment seems worth doing anyways; if someone on LW was able to just go out and do it, that would be great.
That implies the ability to mix and match human chromosomes commercially is really far off
I agree that the issues of avoiding damage and having the correct epigenetics seem like huge open questions, and successfully switching a fruit fly chromosome isn’t sufficient to settle them
Would this sequence be sufficient?
1. Switch a chromosome in a fruit fly
Success = normal fruit fly development
2a. Switch a chromosome in a rat
Success = normal rat development
2b. (in parallel, doesn’t depend on 2a) Combine several chromosomes in a fruit fly to optimize aggressively for a particular trait
Success = fruit fly develops with a lot of the desired trait, but without serious negative consequences
3. Repeat 2b on a rat
4. Repeat 2a and 2b on a primate
Can you think of a faster way? It seems like a very long time to get something commercially viable
It seems fairly straightforward to test whether a chromosome transfer protocol results in physical/genetic damage in small scale experiments (e.g. replace chromosome X in cell A with chromosome Y in cell B, culture cell A, examine cell A’s chromosomes under a microscope + sequence the genome).
The epigenetics seems harder. Having a good gears-level understanding of the epigenetics of development seems necessary, because then you’d know what to measure in an experiment to test whether your protocol was epigenetically sound.