For The First Time, Researchers Decoded the RNA Of an Extinct Animal
The article discusses an animal known Tasman tiger that became extinct in 1936. The last Tasman tiger died in a zoo in Hobart, Tasmania. This extinct animal had stripes like a tiger from its shoulder to its tail with the facial structure of a wolf. A bounty was put in place to hunt these animals to extinction in the 19th century. The importance of decoding the RNA was to uncover how the tiger's cells functioned which was said by Emilio Marmol-Sanchez. Six small samples of the muscle and skin were collected from the tiger where each sample was made/ into powder and researchers added chemicals to be able to separate the nucleotides. Researchers gathered different protein-coding RNA molecules in the skin and muscles of the tiger. 250 thylacine micro RNAs were found that controlled how the cells moved. I found this article interesting because this was my first time hearing of a Tasman tiger. The scientists even tried to modify the genes of the fat-tailed dunnart to try to attempt de-extinct the organism using the Tasmans closest relative..
This is cool, I wonder if this technique could be applied to other extinct species. I wonder what the next step scientists would take with this discovery!
ReplyDelete