|
|
The last known Tasmanian tiger, which took its name from the Australian island and the stripes on its back, died in captivity in the Hobart Zoo in 1936, having been hunted to extinction in the wild in the early 1900s. Some thylacine pups and adult tissues were preserved in alcohol, however, and the research team used specimens from the Museum Victoria in Melbourne. "The research team isolated DNA from 100-year-old ethanol-fixed specimens," the scientists said in a statement. "After authenticating this DNA as truly thylacine, it was inserted into mouse embryos and its function examined...The thylacine DNA was resurrected, showing a function in the developing mouse cartilage, which will later form the bone." The results are due to be published in the international scientific journal PLoS ONE on Tuesday. "This research has enormous potential for many applications including the development of new biomedicines and gaining a better understanding of the biology of extinct animals," said co-author Richard Behringer of the University of Texas. At a time when extinction rates are increasing the discovery is critical, said senior author Marilyn Renfree of the University of Melbourne. "For those species that have already become extinct, our method shows that access to their genetic biodiversity may not be completely lost," she said. But Renfree also cautioned that the recreation of extinct animals was not the aim of the research. "Maybe one day this might be possible but it won't happen in my lifetime," she said. "It might happen in my children's lifetime, but there's so many steps we need to achieve before you could actually make this work." The prospect of bringing extinct animals back to life caught the public imagination after Steven Spielberg's 1993 film "Jurassic Park," based on the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. In that story, dinosaurs are cloned from genetic material found in mosquitoes that had sucked their blood before becoming preserved in amber. The dinosaurs then wreak havoc. Related Links: |
advertisement
Put Discovery News on Your Site!
|
