[Penguin]

Our present knowledge of genetics is challenged, every so often, by biological surprises such as this dog. She is a veritable freak of nature, born carrying double muscles.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-467985/Meet-Incredible-Hulk-Hounds.html

    It's a bizarre incident, but one has to consider the possibilities available through genetics: a mutation in nature through random chance can be duplicated in a laboratory. Dogs and humans aren't outrageously different from each other on a genetic level, as we are both mammals, and so there would likely be a counterpart manipulation possible for human DNA.

A double-muscled human? Actually, it's hard to visualize. Guessing, from how the dog compares to an average member of her species, and then applying that in proportion to the muscular structure of a human female, you'd have something… well…

I can't say what. The idea really requires illustration I believe. Anyone with artistic (or photoshop) talent care to attempt this hypothetical woman?

[Trash Boat]

Genetic manipulation is rapidly growing field of operation and I guess it's only a matter of time when they start to alter the humans too. In sports genetic "doping" is already coming and it's almost impossiple to get caught with it so many many labs are probably investing large sums of money in that kind of research.

There are some freaks of nature in both – animal and human kingdom – but those are really rare and one notices at first glance only the most obvious side of that, which in this case is the vast muscularity. But most of times the flip-side of the coin is not so shiny: heart problems, broken limbs and bones, constant pains and so on.

In agriculture genetic alteretion has been part of the scene in vegetables and also in meat product for some time now. So I see why it wouldn't be possible with human too, though double standardly ethic matters come to question then.

But as said before, one could envy those species but the whole case is a bit more complicated. It's not a proof on nature's bizarre sense of humor that there is a myostatin which blogs the muscle growht. Hypertrophy of the heart and maybe kidney problems is only a short description of problems what those might need to face up in the future. Mammal body is a complex organism and it is not yeat so well known that we could do anything to it.

Still of course a image of female with that mutation makes my imagination fly. I got a bit carried away with this matter, but I hope you can forgive me that.

And there are already lots of guys doing that kind of photo manipulation and arts. Just start searching.

[sacul]

yeah, i agree with both statements, on one hand you've got something really cool going on here with the dog and the bull and so on, but like anything, there is always two sides of a coin.  the fact remains that why we find the human body attractive is because its in porportion.  i just posted a photo manip of this huge blonde and although its kinda cool, in real life it would be completely impractical

[John]

Just imagine the human equivalent to the dog and the cow.  No steroids, no loss of "femininity" – just an insane increase in "natural" muscle building capacity.

[Fett]

This isn't what people think it is. People with this lack of gene would still have to exercise and eat right to gain bulk. Animals don't have the lazy comforts the modern person does.

Flex Wheeler has such a mutation, and he had to work out and he took steroids and ate like all the other bodybuilders. It was just quicker for him. I'm sure we've already seen women with this mutation in our lifetimes already. Tina Lockwood, probably.

[Trash Boat]

I had to refresh my memory since my recollections were a bit tenuous.

Flex Wheeler was the case I was trying to remember but however it seems that he's muscle mass can't be explained with this polymorphism in his DNA. It seems to be more complicated thing and I haven't got the competence to review this article but anyway Flex was one of the participients. It is not that rare and seems to be hereditary but:

"Neither of the common polymorphisms had a significant impact on muscle mass response to strength training in either Caucasians or African Americans, although skewed allele frequencies preclude detection of small effect"

But however this German kid seems to be the real deal and so the first reported case between DNA polymorphism and muscle growth. Honestly that kid is far away from normal.

I guess Liam Hoekstra is the second one but he doesn't seem to be as buff as the previous one.

I forgot the point I was trying to make while reading those articles but here some inro anyway. 

[Fett]

The thing is… this is like dyslexia. Before science had a term for it, it existed and people didn't realise. The same is true for these mutations. They are not brand new 21st century craziness. It's very likely this german kid is just the first kid to have been diagnosed with this condition from birth. If Wheeler was born today, it probably would be the same situation. As I say, I'm sure this has happened before, so this is great fodder for growth stories, but in real life, it most likely won't amount to ubermensch.

[alex]

I for one, hope they perfect gene transfer techniques enough to be safe this type of genetic engineering.  I bet it will end up being much, much safer then steroids, and without the horrible androgenic side-effects they have on women nowadays.

But more then serving our particular fetish, such type of genetic muscle enhancement will have great benefits for old people and possibly people who suffer from forms of muscular dystrophy.

[Penguin]

Imagine for a moment that along with genetic modification to the muscularity of some creature, the care was taken to also increase the strength of connective tissues, deter enlargement of the heart, and otherwise negate most of the life-threatening consequences of an overly-muscled frame.

The dog in the article must have at least a few of these accommodating mutations to be able to reach adulthood at all, really.

My faith in the proliferation of genetic engineering is much stronger than, say, space travel. Whereas the latter is considered impractical by current science, the limitations on the former are reduced constantly by increasing computer power. In terms of our inherently fictitious future, complete genetic control over humanity appears more readily attainable, actually inevitable at this rate.

With that said, and the geneticists popping the corks over their nobel prize, the entirety of the human genome finally under our collective thumb, suppose someone were to create a human counterpart to the dog in this article. It could happen, right? A doctor lets some whim get the better of his otherwise judgmental nature, and he makes a human female with double muscles, exceptionally strong bones and tendons, 24 abdominal muscles, etc.

Most photoshopped images of female bodybuilders don't quite take into account the effect of EVERY muscle being doubled. Perhaps it could be interesting. So, I'm kind of calling artists to duty, for the sake of imagination. As I am demanding participation, I myself will attempt to visually represent such a woman (despite minimal artistic skills!) as fair is fair.

[Trash Boat]

The thing is… this is like dyslexia. Before science had a term for it, it existed and people didn't realise. The same is true for these mutations. They are not brand new 21st century craziness. It's very likely this german kid is just the first kid to have been diagnosed with this condition from birth. If Wheeler was born today, it probably would be the same situation. As I say, I'm sure this has happened before, so this is great fodder for growth stories, but in real life, it most likely won't amount to ubermensch.

Well I wasn't trying to claim that. As they say in the first research, there seems to be NO link between this polymorphia and muscle growth – and Flex was only one of 40 participiants, so it's not extraordinary rare freak of nature kind of thing – but the second one might have. So it's more complicated than just a lack of one growth factor.

There are some myostatin blocker out there, but so far those seem to be just sugar powder with fancy name. No results whatsoever.

So with given data I can't really claim anything in one way or another. This kind of people most likely have been throuhout the history, so as you said, it's not a new thing. But are there different levels of this mutation, I don't know.

Anyhow this is off-topic so I guess I've said what I wanted to so back to the topic. Maybe to write a muscle growth story about this matter.

[Author]

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