{"id":36277,"date":"2018-11-02T11:43:31","date_gmt":"2018-11-02T06:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=36277"},"modified":"2018-11-02T11:43:31","modified_gmt":"2018-11-02T06:13:31","slug":"nilgiris-pale-tiger-an-aberrant-genetic-mutation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/nilgiris-pale-tiger-an-aberrant-genetic-mutation\/","title":{"rendered":"Nilgiris pale tiger an \u2018aberrant genetic mutation\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><b>Prelims Related News<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-national\/pale-tiger-an-aberrant-genetic-mutation\/article19237117.ece\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nilgiris pale tiger an \u2018aberrant genetic mutation\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Context<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A (White) pale tiger was recently spotted in the <\/span><b>Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, although experts believe it\u2019s just an instance of an aberrant genetic mutation.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Genetic Mutation<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although no such animal has been recorded in south India so far and the pale tiger of the Nilgiris has managed to won <\/span><b>global attention<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, where the pale tiger was photographed, also includes the <\/span><b>Mudumalai-Bandipur-Nagarhole-Waya- nad complex<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which is home to the <\/span><b>world\u2019s largest<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> wild tiger population.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Random genetic mutations are a common occurrence in large populations and experts believe that this could just be <\/span><b>a random genetic mutation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The paler-looking tigers may occur rarely due to reduced levels of the pigment melanin in a phenomenon called<\/span><b> leucism<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leucism is a condition in which there <\/span><b>is partial loss of pigmentation <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in an animal resulting in white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The \u2018white\u2019 gene<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A team of genetic scientists led by Dr Shu-Jin Luo from Peking University in Beijing, using whole-genome sequences of white and normally-colored Bengal tigers, has revealed that a mutation in a single pigment gene, called <\/span><b>SLC45A2<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, is responsible for the unusual coloration of white tigers.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The white tiger or bleached tiger is a pigmentation variant of the Bengal tiger, which is reported in the wild from time to time in the Indian states of Assam, West Bengal and Bihar in the <\/span><b>Sunderbans <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">region and especially in the former State of<\/span><b> Rewa<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The gene variant found in the white tiger primarily inhibits the synthesis of red and yellow pigments but has little to no effect on black, which explains why white tigers still show characteristic dark stripes<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is an International Biosphere Reserve in the <\/span><b>Western Ghats and Nilgiri Hills ranges<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of <\/span><b>South India.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Nilgiri Sub-Cluster is a part of the Western Ghats, which was declared a <\/span><b>World Heritage Site<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by <\/span><b>UNESCO<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in 2012. It includes the Mudumalai, Mukurthi, Nagarhole, and Bandipur national parks, as well as the Wayanad and Sathyamangalam wildlife sanctuaries.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The reserve encompasses <\/span><b>5,520 km\u00b2<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. It forms an almost complete ring around the Nilgiri Plateau.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fauna includes over 100 species of mammals, 350 species of birds, 80 species of reptiles, about 39 species of fish, 31 amphibians and 316 species of butterflies.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has largest population of two endangered species- lion-tailed <\/span><b>macaque<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>nilgiri tahr<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve <\/span><b>is India&#8217;s first and foremost<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> biosphere reserves with a heritage, rich in flora and fauna. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This genetic mutation is already known to cause light coloration in horses, chicken and fish and has been proved that mutations are natural.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, most white tigers may be at a disadvantage in the wild due to lack of camouflage.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">All white tigers in captivity across the world trace their origins to one of the last white tigers in the wild, a male named <\/span><b>Mohan<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with blue eyes and pink nose and paw-pads, which was captured from Rewa in Madhya Pradesh in 1951.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/health\/central-labs-moot-human-first-approach-to-test-malaria-vaccine\/article19235713.ece\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Central labs moot \u2018human first\u2019 approach to test malaria vaccine<\/span><\/a> <b>(Ethics meet to conduct human challenge trials in India)<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Context<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First-of-its-kind, experts at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and labs affiliated to the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), will have a \u201cethics meeting\u201d to discuss the feasibility of conducting so-called \u2018human challenge\u2019 trials in India this November.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The Vaccine candidates<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The meeting will also indulge discussion on two vaccine-candidates.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of them causes falciparum malaria.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The other one is the milder but more prevalent vivax.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both were developed at the New Delhi-based International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Why it has been a waste of Money?<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Because vaccines involve injecting the body with a mild strain of a parasite, the traditional approach for drugs and vaccines has been to test it in animals and only then, if safe and effective, check them in humans.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This approach however has meant that several promising candidates, after tons of investment, fail to live up to expectations and consequently wasted money.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Moreover, there are situations where the dosage requirements in people or, the manner in which disease manifests is different from that in animal models<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, not all strains are responsive to a human-first, or <strong>Controlled Human Infection Model (CHIM)<\/strong> approach.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The strain of parasite, for instance, must only induce as much infection as can be treated by available medicines.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Only healthy, human volunteers completely aware of the risks and have given informed consent ought to be recruited for trials. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Immune response<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has to be a strain that induces an immune response that you are capable of controlling infection.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If somebody starts getting sick one should be able to abort the infection.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Challenge trials were being conducted for testing typhoid vaccines at Oxford University, in the United Kingdom as well in other studies in the Netherlands and Africa.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Though plans to employ such an approach were discussed three years ago, it didn\u2019t materialize.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>\u2018The CHIM\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Developing and utilizing controlled human models of infection.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <strong>controlled human infection model<\/strong> (CHIM) helps to assess the efficacy of vaccines against <strong>Shigella and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC)<\/strong> that has several unique features that could significantly enhance the ability to test candidate vaccines.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Prelims Related News Nilgiris pale tiger an \u2018aberrant genetic mutation\u2019 Context A (White) pale tiger was recently spotted in the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve, although experts believe it\u2019s just an instance of an aberrant genetic mutation. Genetic Mutation Although no such animal has been recorded in south India so far and the pale tiger of the&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/nilgiris-pale-tiger-an-aberrant-genetic-mutation\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Nilgiris pale tiger an \u2018aberrant genetic mutation\u2019<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36277","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704915029},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36277\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}