Has anyone changed the chimp FOXP2 gene to match the human version?

[toadspittle]

The FOXP2 gene is believed to have wide-ranging effects on human language ability (i.e., people with defects to the gene--most who do, die--have severe speech, syntax, and writing impairments that seem independent of other intelligence issues; the gene is identical in every healthy human on the planet and it appears to have been conserved in its present form for a good 200,000 years--indicating that it grants some serious adaptive benefit).

The chimpanzee version apparently only differs from ours by 2 amino acids. Has anyone tried to replace the chimp version with the human kind (at the zygote stage, I'd presume), to see what effect it might have?

This thread ( http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...ighlight=foxp2 ) addresses the question, but with no answer. Has anything changed since then?

[Dogface]

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/q...rch&term=FOXP2

Knock yerself out.

[Dogface]

As for actually replacing the gene, there are some technical problems. Getting permission to do any chimpanzee research is difficult to begin with. Generating a genetic knockout or mutant would be even harder to get past the animal use committees.

[toadspittle]

As for actually replacing the gene, there are some technical problems. Getting permission to do any chimpanzee research is difficult to begin with. Generating a genetic knockout or mutant would be even harder to get past the animal use committees.

Too bad. I love and respect chimpanzees as much as the next person, but I think the possibly quite dramatic results would be fascinating.

If only we had 21st-century science and 19th-century ethics. Ah, well.