Mitochondrial evolution in snails gives hints on the adaptation from sea to land

#1

Post by kurono » Sun, Sep 04, 2016, 11:02 AM UTC

Mitochondrial evolution in snails gives hints on the adaptation from sea to land
blogs.biomedcentral.com

Re: Mitochondrial evolution in snails gives hints on the adaptation from sea to land

#2

Post by Pica_soO » Sun, Sep 04, 2016, 9:13 PM UTC

Completely unrelated, but could Snails be genetically altered to grow houses?

Re: Mitochondrial evolution in snails gives hints on the adaptation from sea to land

#3

Post by zeroer » Sun, Sep 04, 2016, 10:05 PM UTC

Pica_soO wrote: post #2

Completely unrelated, but could Snails be genetically altered to grow houses?

Sure. Why not?

Re: Mitochondrial evolution in snails gives hints on the adaptation from sea to land

#4

Post by Pica_soO » Mon, Sep 05, 2016, 7:43 AM UTC

zeroer wrote: post #3

Pica_soO wrote: post #2

Completely unrelated, but could Snails be genetically altered to grow houses?

Sure. Why not?

Usually biological systems don't scale well. A car sized ant wouldn't work. A fire hose long synthetic snail that excretes drywall on speed would need tremendous amounts of nutrients i guess..

Re: Mitochondrial evolution in snails gives hints on the adaptation from sea to land

#5

Post by flukus » Mon, Sep 05, 2016, 7:46 AM UTC

Pica_soO wrote: post #2

Completely unrelated, but could Snails be genetically altered to grow houses?

How do you feel about living in shell shaped houses?

Re: Mitochondrial evolution in snails gives hints on the adaptation from sea to land

#6

Post by Pica_soO » Tue, Sep 06, 2016, 12:52 AM UTC

flukus wrote: post #5

Pica_soO wrote: post #2

Completely unrelated, but could Snails be genetically altered to grow houses?

How do you feel about living in shell shaped houses?

I assume, the structure is all up what you make off it- just because you use a natures approach for the start, doesent mean you go full horn of plenty.

Re: Mitochondrial evolution in snails gives hints on the adaptation from sea to land

#7

Post by Pica_soO » Wed, Sep 07, 2016, 8:09 AM UTC

Pica_soO wrote: post #2

Completely unrelated, but could Snails be genetically altered to grow houses?

I actually investigated this, and the approach that would have to be used would be - very complicated to say the least. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastropod_shell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mollusc_shell A good starting candidate for genetically re-ingeneering would be the near extinct giant clam. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_clam

First you would need the genetically altered reduced snail - organ connected to a moveable scaffold that has the length of the longest wall you would want to extrude. You in addition would need: Some machinery to support the organ and to supply the nutrients necessary for building up such a structure. Also do not forget that the extruded shell material is flexible at the start and hardens out.

Another problem - the shells are rather brittle so additional material to fill the spaces between shellrooms would be needed.

Im not that well with economics, but if somebody would take this wild ride through a pseudo buisnessplan, that would be fun.