seed magazine mouse posted 11 February 2007
This illustration is in the January 2007 issue of SEED Magazine. And it’s no ordinary mouse, oh no. It’s a complex scientific illustration. I was asked to create artwork to go with an article on genetics about the effects of something called interfering RNA, which affects DNA and how it carries genetic information. It took me a while to get my head around the article.
The scientist, Minoo Rassoulzadegan, worked with the Kit gene where mice with a mutant Kit gene had white paws and tail tips. And, in the offspring of mice with 1 mutant Kit gene + 1 normal kit gene were mice with 2 normal kit genes, the offspring of those normal mice still sometimes showed the effects of the mutant gene, even though they didn’t have the mutant gene. She went on to prove, by injecting micro RNA into the embryos, that it was this interfering RNA that was carrying the genetic material of the mutant gene.
SO
I was thinking about generations of mice, and the effect of the kit gene on the generations: this is what led me into a kind of pattern. But it’s a variable pattern due to the various outcomes of breeding and the interference of the RNA. So the pattern becomes like a diagram of the results:
And of course it all takes the shape of a mouse with white feet and tail tip!
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