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Color Blindness In Adult Primates Summary

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The article “Gene therapy for red- green colour blindness in adult primates” by Katherine Mancuso and her colleges is about the possibility of curing color blindness. This test was done on adult squirrel monkeys that were missing the L- opsin gene. Out of the three cones humans have (short (S), long (L), or the middle (M) photoreceptor) only the L-or-M cone is responsible for red- green colour blindness. Many female squirrel monkeys have the ability to access all three photoreceptors giving them the ability for trichromatic color vision, but males are dichromats meaning they are missing the L-or- M gene causing them to be color blind. In order to correct this color deficiency a third type of pigment was added to the monkeys retinas to provide them with the receptors that are necessary in order obtain trichromatic color vision. Over the span of a year the scientists observed that before the treatment the monkeys couldn’t decipher between blue green and red violet. After they started to develop a new pigment (due to the injection) in the cone photoreceptors scientists discovered that the monkeys now reacted to the colors they couldn’t see before. The scientists concluded primates benefited from the injection and that they were able to see colors they were invisible to them before, and that the findings in this experiment could …show more content…

We are an advanced society: we have the cure to numerous diseases, we’ve cloned animals, and we have successfully separated conjoined twins, yet we cant give a small fraction of the population the ability to see life in full color! One evolutionary development that humans have is the capacity to see in color and when we can’t see greens or reds it’s psychologically damaging. Not being able to see life it its colorful form is frustrating and inconvenient. Something that seems so insignificant to many would be a huge scientific

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