Four marmosets are first transgenic primates

Four little marmosets glowing green could be heralds of a new species for modeling human diseases.

Japanese scientists engineered the marmosets to make green fluorescent protein in all the cells of their bodies, including eggs and sperm. The marmosets are the first transgenic primates — animals that carry a foreign gene. Some of the animals were able to pass the foreign gene to offspring, the researchers report in the May 28 Nature.