Glow-in-the-Dark Sheep? Your Eyes Aren't Fooling You!

It's not the first time an organism or animal has been genetically modified to glow -- bacteria, fish, even cats have had their genes altered with a special protein that causes them fluoresce under ultraviolet light. But when a sheep of a different color is involved, people seem to take note.

(Photo: IRAUy / J. Calvelo via SlashGear)

According to Nature World News, the sheep exhibiting such a trait were born at the Animal Reproduction Institute of Uruguay last fall and have been developing normally -- aside from their hue -- ever since. 

"We did not use a protein of medical interest or to help with a particular medicine because we wanted to fine-tune the technique. We used the green protein because the color is easily identifiable in the sheep's tissues," Alejo Menchaca, who led the research team, said according to Nature World News. 

Green Florescent Protein is isolated from a specific species of jellyfish and can then be cloned and inserted into the genes of other animals. GFP is useful in that it can be used as a tag to monitor development or the movement of something, like how a virus spreads. 

Watch this report about the glowing sheep:

(H/T: SlashGear)