Japan researchers create singing mice via genetic modification+

OSAKA, July 10 Kyodo -
A group of researchers at Osaka University has genetically engineered mice so that they sing like birds.
Studying the effects of the chirping sound on other mice could promote research into the evolution of mammalian verbal communications, said Arikuni Uchimura, an assistant professor of the university located in Suita, Osaka Prefecture.
The team discovered a mouse tweeting like a bird when they were breeding mice genetically-engineered to produce frequent mutations.
The chirping has continued through more than eight generations of mice.
Computer tomography imaging shows that a section of the throat in the ''singing mice'' is thinner than in mice that haven't been genetically altered.
==Kyodo