Mutant 'daddy shortlegs' created in a lab

[Judi Lynn]

By Harry Baker - Staff Writer about 9 hours ago

Researchers were able to 'switch off' the genes behind the insect's famously long legs.

Scientists have created "daddy shortlegs," a stunted version of the common household pest daddy longlegs, by suppressing the genes behind the arachnid's famously elongated limbs.

Daddy longlegs, also known as harvestmen or crane flies, belong to the class Arachnids — a group of eight-legged invertebrates that includes spiders, scorpions, ticks, mites and horseshoe crabs. There are more than 6,500 species of daddy longlegs in the order Opiliones, each of which is characterized by flexible legs that are several times longer than the individual's body.

In a series of new experiments, a team of researchers mapped the entire genome of Phalangium opilio, the most common species of daddy longlegs, and isolated the genes responsible for their famous long legs. The researchers then turned off the long leg genes in developing embryos, creating individual arachnids with shorter, deformed legs.

"Our purpose was not just to shorten their legs just for the sake of it," lead author Guilherme Gainett, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Live Science. "We wanted to understand more about how these fascinating creatures evolved their alien way of locomotion and body plan."

More:
https://www.livescience.com/scientists-create-daddy-shortlegs.html

[yonder]

1. AKA Craneflies???

Craneflies do have very long legs but insects are not Arachnids.

Dipterids are not Phalangids. At least not yet, but if they keep mucking around with genes like this, one day they might be.

[Moebym]

2. Whether they're longlegs or shortlegs

I get fastlegs when I see one.

They are one of the few creatures of which a picture is just as terrifying as the real thing.

[KT2000]

3. They should leave them alone.

Poor critters.