The wooly mammoth became extinct about 11,000 years ago as the Ice Age ended.Straight out of the movie Jurassic Park, scientists announced this week they have successfully sequenced the draft genome of the long-extinct wooly mammoth and are speculating that a living mammoth could be created through combining the sequence with elephant DNA.
Scientists used hair snipped from two dead mammoths preserved in Siberian permafrost for tens of thousands of years. The two mammoths from which the hair shafts were taken died around 20,000 years and 50,000 years ago respectively.
Important gaps in the picture remain, but there is enough genetic data to make a comparison between the woolly mammoth and its closest living relative, the elephant, scientists said. The two species are so similar that their DNA differs by just 0.6 per cent, or about half the amount of difference between humans and chimps.
Replication Theoretically Possible
Researchers are saying it should be theoretically possible to replicate a wooly mammoth ~ or a mammoth-like animal ~ by taking the elephant's genome, stripping out the code specific to the elephant and replacing it with code specific to the mammoth. The new code would be fused into an elephant's egg and then transplanted into a female elephant.
Rebuilding the mammoth's genetic code is prompting speculation that scientists may one day revive this species and other extinct Ice Age beasts.
Researchers are saying it should be theoretically possible to replicate a wooly mammoth ~ or a mammoth-like animal ~ by taking the elephant's genome, stripping out the code specific to the elephant and replacing it with code specific to the mammoth. The new code would be fused into an elephant's egg and then transplanted into a female elephant.
Rebuilding the mammoth's genetic code is prompting speculation that scientists may one day revive this species and other extinct Ice Age beasts.
No comments:
Post a Comment