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Gene-edited 'Peter Pan' cane toad that never grows up created to eat its siblings, control invasive species

The removed gene controls the production of the hormone thyroxine, which fuels the metamorphosis that occurs when a tadpole transforms into a toad. Rick Shine, an evolutionary biologist and ecologist at Macquarie University, is one of the scientists behind the "Peter Pan toads". He said cane toad tadpoles were known to be voracious cannibals with a preference for snacking on their kin, both in egg and hatchling form. This is especially true in Australia where rates of cannibalism of hatchlings by tadpoles have been recorded as 2.4 times that of South America — where the cane toad originated...

Read more: https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025-04-08/cane-toad-created-that-never-grows-up-and-eats-its-siblings/105100286