A recent posting from the popular science website IFLScience entitled "Scientists Successfully Insert Woolly Mammoth DNA into Elephant Genome" has allowed for Jurassic Park dreams to come to life. Recently, a team of
Harvard geneticists lead by George Church have been able to successfully
implant Woolly Mammoths genes into the elephant genome. Woolly Mammoths, one of
the more well-known extinct species, appeared around 2 million years ago and went
extinct around 4,000 years ago after the last surviving population died out on
an Island in the Arctic Ocean about 6,000 years after the majority of their
species. Because Woolly Mammoths lived primarily in tundra landscapes, many of
their carcasses have been discovered in excellent condition due to the protection
the permafrost offered them from decomposition. While their bodies remained
fairly intact, their DNA was not as lasting. DNA degrades over time, icy
preservation or not, thus leading to mere shards of the Mammoth genome being
discovered with the carcasses. While this seems like a discouraging issue,
Church’s team as well as others, have been looking to merge some of the
fragmented bits of genetic material found with the genome of the Woolly
Mammoths most closely related living species, the Asian elephant. Using
relatively new techniques to carefully cut at the elephant genome, Church’s
team was able to successfully insert 14 Woolly Mammoth genes into the DNA of living
elephant cells, focusing on genes associated with surviving in frigid
landscapes. The Mammoth DNA shreds were extracted from some of latest surviving
Woolly Mammoths, those that had survived past most of their species on Wrangle
Island in the Arctic Ocean. The elephant cells with inserted Mammoth DNA have
been successfully functioning, Church reported to the Sunday Times .
While this experiment is certainly revolutionary, Church and his team have yet
to publish their work in any science journal because, as Church says, “there is
more work to do”. As in the case of Jurassic Park, this work brings up the
ethics behind recreating an extinct species. While Church believes the
reintroduction of Woolly Mammoths may help the declining Siberian permafrost , there is also debate against recreating this ancient species and the ethics
of “playing God” (the irony of Church’s last name really adds to this argument,
in my opinion).
The quality of mammoth specimens found is remarkable and its amazing to see how the surrounding natural environment has preserved them so well. For these reasons I think it offers the potential chance for a Jurassic Park like scenario with the mammoths at some point in the future. Although, ethics will always be an issue with something like this I'd be excited to see what scientists are capable of.
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