The project "Mammoth": return of the ancient giants to life

The team at Harvard Medical School, consisting of specialists in genetics, расшифровала the complete genome of the mammoth . And deciphered genomes of not one but two individuals. The results of this work are published in the prestigious journal Current Biology em> . At the same time in an exemplary way of development and formation of species.

Shaggy mammoths appeared about 700,000 years ago, in Siberia. Then mammoth population spread throughout Eastern Europe and North America. At the same time, according to DNA, mammoths died out almost 280 thousand years ago and about 12 thousand years ago. At the end of the existence of mammoth population was reduced to one thousand individuals. The last mammoths lived in Siberia about 6,000 years ago, while intraspecific hybridization has not led to the extinction of mammoths.

For several years, scientists are trying to extract and decode the DNA hairy elephants, for a possible revival of the form. In 2008, Pennsylvania State University attempted to extract a sample of DNA from tissues frozen mammoth. The attempt was unsuccessful. This was followed by an attempt to scientists from South Korea. Scientists managed a little more, and now the Koreans are trying to decipher the DNA samples of tissue specimens, dead somewhere 40,000 years ago. Previous projects have brought significant results - the scientists were able to extract enough sample length genome, although it was not full of DNA samples. Only now, scientists from Harvard managed to extract intact DNA and decode the genome of ancient animals.

As previously reported, the same team of scientists has successfully implemented transplant mammoth genes Asian elephants, using the method of CRISP . Specialists have genes from the DNA of mammoths from Wrangel Island, the relevant section of the genome responsible for wool, size of ears, subcutaneous fat and hemoglobin. The British claim that currently they have elephants living cells with built mammoth DNA.



Source: geektimes.ru/post/249486/