Glowing Bunny Born in Turkey

A glowing bunny sounds like a creature from Jefferson Airplane’s psychedelic-laced song, “White Rabbit,” but real fluorescent rabbits were recently born at the University of Istanbul, Turkey.

Rabbits join a growing list of fluorescent fur-bearers. Genetic engineers have created glowing dogs, cats, pigs and mice by inserting a gene from a jellyfish into the mammals’ DNA. The jellyfish gene codes for a protein that emits light when exposed to ultraviolet light.

The jellyfish gene adds an obvious physical change to an engineered animal. This allows scientists to know that genetic material successfully transferred into a new organism.