George Church, a geneticist at Harvard Medical School is already working on "resurrecting" the mammoth so to speak. Using CRISPR/Cas9 technology genes are able to be edited easily. He has identified 14 genes that may be correlated to cold tolerance. This may be the beginning of bringing back the wooly mammoth or modifying Asian elephants to have mammoth qualities. An actual mammoth-like elephant roaming the arctic is years away, but the genome research is incredibly interesting.
Links:
https://www.nature.com/news/mammoth-genomes-provide-recipe-for-creating-arctic-elephants-1.17462
https://www.history.com/news/wooly-mammoth-resurrection-cloning-genesis
I didn't know doing something like this was possible until now. The discovery of CRISPIR has made changing or editing genes so much easier. Maybe this technique could also be used in similar ways with other extinct species too.
ReplyDeleteI found this article interesting because I know that we are able to clone actual animals that exist today. However to clone an animal of prehistoric descent I would believe its much harder, although I would love to see this happen.
ReplyDeleteI knew crisper was a powerful tool ever since I wrote a research paper on it. I figured something like this would come about one day. Im extremely excited to see if it truly works or not. If it does it would be a great example of how crisper can be used.
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