Question: If the same gene therapy for high cholestrol was applied to a snail would it have any effect?

Olivia Hibbitt answered on 16 Mar 2010:

He he…..excellent name!!
Well there are lots of things to consider with that situation! My research looks at mammalian things. There is a LOT of similarity between say mice and humans……but that similarity starts to lessen when you look at invertebrates like snails. If you look at the genome from lots of animal species they are remarkably similar so it is likely that a snail would have the gene that I look at……whether it has the condition that I work on is another question. It all depends on whether snails make cholesterol in the same way mammals do. If they do there might be snails that do not have working receptors and therefore have a similar condition to humans. I’d then need to think about how to give my gene therapy to the snails! I know very little about snail anatomy…..I wouldn’t know where to put the gene!!!