A scientist working on reviving a mammoth. CRISPR scientists are trying to bring the woolly mammoth back to life

This possibility was seriously discussed in 2013. Speaking at the TedXDeExtinction conference, Harvard geneticist and CRISPR pioneer George Church announced a roadmap for the partial revival of the mammoth. Scientists have already partially deciphered the mammoth genome based on DNA extracted from ancient bones and other remains, Church said. This information could be used to edit the genes of the Asian elephant and give the animal some of the same traits as its extinct relative, such as size and resistance to cold.

Journalists called Church’s plan “the resurrection of mammoths,” but the scientist rather spoke about the hybridization of extinct and modern species, notes Wall Street Journal. Even if the experiment is successful, the resulting animal will not be the genetic equivalent of a mammoth. However, the scientist's speech brought the idea of ​​reviving extinct species from the pages of science fiction into real life.

Despite the hype around mammoths, the first species to return from oblivion may not be the shaggy elephant, but passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius).

This bird has long become a symbol of the destructive influence of civilization on the wildlife of the United States. There were once billions of them in North America, but intensive hunting completely destroyed the species. The last individual, Martha the Dove, died in captivity in 1914.

American scientists intend to bring back passenger pigeons using CRISPR technology. The species revival project was led by Beth Shapiro, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz and author of the book"The Science of Species Resurrection" . Shapiro's lab studies the genomes of extinct animals, extracting material from fragments hundreds of thousands of years old. This is not an easy task, because after an organism dies, its DNA quickly decays.

For the pigeon project, the team took samples from carcasses and stuffed passenger pigeons that are kept in museum collections. The DNA was incomplete, but answered many of the researchers' questions. By comparing it with the genome of the living band-tailed pigeon (Patagioenas fasciata), scientists identified 32 unique DNA fragments. Among them were genes that allowed the birds to resist the disease and stress that come with living in huge flocks.

In addition, this study refuted experts' assumptions that some genetic flaw led to the extinction of passenger pigeons. Nothing like this was found in the deciphered DNA.

Resurrection Plan

The team's next task will be to integrate the found genes into the genome of the band-tailed pigeon, the closest living relative of the extinct species. However, first it is necessary to test the technology on ordinary rock pigeons, introducing the CRISPR-Cas9 tool into their DNA for the first time in history. This stage takes place in Australia under the guidance of geneticist Ben Novak.

In the first experiments, editing led to the death of most embryos, but gradually the results improved. Once scientists have a sufficient flock of edited sisars, they will try to instill in them some traits of the passenger pigeon. Next, the researchers aim to create birds that look and act like passenger pigeons, but are descended from banded ancestors. According to Novak, this creature should be named Patagioenas neoectopistes.

Ethical Issues

Experts acknowledge that the resurrection of species raises a number of questions. When Beth Shapiro taught an ecology course to graduate students in 2014, she asked everyone in the class to give a presentation on an extinct species and explain why it should be brought back. Graduate students mainly referred to the ecological role of the selected animals or their value for tourism.

However, according to Shapiro, this is not enough. We can bring a species back, but it's pointless if we don't know why it went extinct and we don't address the cause of extinction.

For example, on the island of Mauritius there are still many introduced predators, so reviving dodo makes no sense: their eggs will quickly be eaten. A similar problem awaits passenger pigeons: the forests where they lived have long been replaced by cities and farmland. Another problem is that resurrected mammoths and pigeons have no one to learn the behavior characteristic of these species.

Therefore, Beth Shapiro’s interest is less likely to be related to the resurrection of extinct creatures, but rather to the preservation of modern ecosystems, which such research will contribute to. For example, the passenger pigeon's immunity genes could help many of today's endangered birds. Her colleague Ben Novak, on the contrary, is convinced that this species is worthy of resurrection in its own right.

Russian and Korean scientists intend an ancient species of horse that went extinct about 40,000 years ago. The basis for the experiment will be a well-preserved animal carcass discovered in permafrost. If the “resurrection” succeeds, this will be an important step for the possible revival of the mammoth.

Although many scientists oppose the idea of ​​resurrecting extinct ancient species, a team of researchers from Harvard University has announced that they are trying to do it with the woolly mammoth.

What are scientists working on now?

Scientists announced their intention to bring these megafaunal monsters back from the dead ahead of the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston this week. They explained that their goal is to use CRISPR, a popular gene editing tool, to produce an elephant-mammoth hybrid embryo.

The work of scientists is essentially now at the cell stage. They are experimenting with different combinations of elephant and mammoth genes. The embryos have not yet been created, but according to the project leader, this will take only two years.

However, it will likely be many more years before any of these extinct animals are allowed to survive or even be allowed to grow into adults.

Momophants

But when these animals are finally resurrected, they cannot be called true mammoths; they will most likely be hybrids. Essentially, they are expected to be very furry, elephant-like creatures if the embryos are indeed based on their genes. Hypothetical animals have already been dubbed mammophants.

Given the genes scientists use, the new animals will be more similar to elephants than to their extinct cousins. But the differences between these hypothetical animals are that they would have smaller ears, a significant layer of subcutaneous fat and the ability to adapt to cold climates. This suggests that they will be "housed" in a northern climate, just like in the good old days.

Nevertheless, despite the feeling of unreality of what is happening, this is certainly a good start for the establishment of a Pliocene park. If this crazy scheme is ultimately successful, humanity could bring back a being whose ancestors were last alive many thousands of years ago.

In order to successfully develop one of these embryos into a full-fledged mother, scientists are going to grow it in an artificial womb, instead of using a female elephant as a surrogate mother. This method is currently untested, but scientists hope to follow this path so as not to endanger any individuals in the now critically endangered elephant population.

Ethical issues

This project has raised some ethical issues, particularly the question of whether we should be returning such massive animals to modern environments. It's fair to say that today no one can know how modern animals will react to mamophants roaming around.

However, the idea that scientists will be able to reach new levels of biotechnology is certainly intriguing. Stay tuned ladies and gentlemen, and if you have a better name for these hybrids, please share your ideas with us.

To do this they will be crossed with the Indian elephant

About four thousand years ago, mammoths disappeared from the face of the Earth, but genetic engineering methods will likely make it possible to revive these legendary animals again in the coming years. This forecast was made by experts from Harvard University. Experts hope to soon get a hybrid of an elephant and a mammoth.

Experts plan to give Indian elephants some of the features of woolly mammoths, and if this experiment is successful, this will be a very significant step towards recreating “full-fledged” mammoths. Among the features of the ancient animal that the hybrid will inherit, experts call small ears, subcutaneous fat, long shaggy hair and blood adapted to cold conditions. To create “elephant mammoths”, Crispr technology will be used, which various scientists have resorted to in most of the high-profile genetic experiments that have become known recently.

Scientists announced their plans during a speech at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. According to them, work on creating a mammoth-elephant hybrid has been going on since 2015, and during this time many intermediate successes have been achieved.

Many experts are somewhat skeptical about projects dedicated to the “revival of mammoths.” Some argue that at this stage of the development of science, this is simply unattainable, while others tend to see promises of this kind as more of a “PR stunt” than a real desire to advance science - after all, from the huge number of mammoth animals that became extinct thousands of years ago, By and large, the only difference is their “promotion”. Also, many are concerned about the ethical side of the issue - elephants (and presumably mammoths) are social and quite highly developed animals, and it is not known how happy the life of a hybrid will be. Despite all this, various scientists, including Russian ones, often show interest in reviving the ancient giants.

Scientists at Harvard University announced to the whole world their readiness to present the first “reborn” mammoth to the public in two years. Professor George Church, one of the leading researchers at this respected university, assured the media that mammoths will walk the earth again in the next two to three years. Harvard specialists are working on creating a hybrid embryo of a mammoth and an Indian elephant. At the same time, as George Church assured, the members of his scientific group managed to develop a unique technique that should increase the success of this project many times over. And in the near future, scientists are going to start resurrecting other extinct animals, including dinosaurs, “to replenish the fauna of the planet with them.”

How realistic is this and is it necessary at all, the Free Press asked a famous scientist, full member of the paleontological society at the Russian Academy of Sciences, teacher at VGI Alexandra Yarkova.

"City-forming mammoths"

It is clear that these will not be mammoths in their “pure form”, but some kind of hybrid. Therefore, Harvard scientists have invented a new word for an animal that does not yet exist in nature, but which they intend to create: “mammophant,” literally translated as “mammy elephant.” Interestingly, Harvard employees are going to not just implant a hybrid embryo into an Indian elephant for gestation, but to grow it in some kind of “artificial womb.” Harvard scientists intend to perform these miracles of genetic engineering using the CRISPR/Cas9 technique. The experiment to create a “mammoth elephant” began back in 2015, and at the moment, scientists, they say, have managed to increase the number of mammoth genes introduced into an elephant’s egg from 15 to 45.

Paleontologist Alexander Yarkov with a mammoth bone in his hands (Photo: author)

— The idea of ​​reviving the mammoth is not new. This is how American scientists get grants for themselves,” a Russian paleontologist expressed doubts about the feasibility of this project Alexander Yarkov. - According to the principle of Khoja Nasreddin from the famous parable: “Either the Sultan dies, or the donkey.” That is: they will spend the allocated money, and if the experiment does not work for ten years in a row, everyone will forget about it.

“SP”: — Why do you strongly doubt the success of this scientific project?

“Because they don’t have the source material—the mammoth DNA itself.” The fact is that all the tissues of the mammoths found so far have been spoiled by bacteria. The climate has changed more than once since the extinction of the mammoths: animal carcasses either thawed or froze again. Permafrost turned out to be not so eternal. It is possible to study the gene pool of mammoths from the found, decaying remains, but it is impossible to deduce them again.

“SP”: “But some time ago, the Russian media reported as a scientific sensation about a baby mammoth found in Yakutia, which was preserved in a block of ice so perfectly that it was even possible to extract DNA from its bones...

- Yes, but this is a unique case. And another question: to what extent this DNA will be intact and capable of recreating an embryo. Again, it turns out that the only “whole” mammoth DNA in the world is currently in Russia, and not in the USA. North America had its own mammoths, just as there were horses there, even before the Spaniards arrived on the continent, but both mammoths and the first “non-imported” American horses died out more than 10 thousand years ago. Moreover, North American mammoths became extinct earlier than mammoths on our continent; this has long been a proven scientific fact. This means that it is more difficult for American scientists to obtain complete DNA.

“SP”: Why did mammoths die out so suddenly? They say that very often undigested food was found in the stomachs of frozen mammoths...

“They didn’t die out suddenly. Most serious scientists today agree: mammoths were exterminated by people during the Ice Age. I had to eat something! Although there is information that some mammoths survived to the bronze culture, there is not a single reliable confirmation of this. Why undigested food was found in the stomachs of suddenly dead individual mammoths is understandable. Cro-Magnons dug huge holes to catch mammoths. Getting into such a hole, filled with water with a crust of ice, the mammoth very quickly froze to death if the hunters did not manage to find it in time and eat it. Sometimes mammoths fell from cliffs: no one is safe from accidents. Why is it believed that mammoths became extinct about 10 thousand years ago? I myself saw entire cemeteries of mammoths, heaps of their bones at Cro-Magnon sites, which date back exactly 10,000 years ago. These were, one might say, city-forming mammoths, giving the entire tribe a chance for survival. But at sites that are already 8,000 years old, there are no mammoth bones: they are no longer left, although human culture has remained at approximately the same level - flint spears and axes.

"DNA from dinosaur bones is a myth"

"SP": - If it is so difficult to find whole mammoth DNA, how can US scientists talk about their hopes of cloning dinosaurs?

- This is a lie, of course! Dinosaurs went extinct about 65 million years ago. There is no longer any organic matter in the bone, which is more than 100 thousand years old. Therefore, it is generally impossible to extract DNA from dinosaur bones! I myself have found the remains of a mososaur in excellent condition. His bones were very similar to fresh ones, but this still does not mean anything. All organic matter in such ancient bones has already crystallized and, in fact, it is no longer bone, but stone. That's why they are called "fossils."

“SP”: — But would you like to pet a live mammoth, look at dinosaurs in a real Jurassic Park?

- Of course, I would like to. Still, bison and Przewalski's horse, which were on the verge of extinction, have somehow been saved today: the population is being restored. But these were rare species living today. But as a scientist, I have doubts about the fact that it will be possible to return extinct animals using DNA. We would like to preserve the unique endangered fauna that now exists on Earth! Just look: in the 20th century alone, people completely destroyed the Tasmanian wolf, Steller's cow and many other beautiful animals and birds. Due to human activity, hundreds of living beings and entire species of animals in the world's oceans are becoming extinct. In my opinion: task No. 1 is to preserve what we now have on planet Earth. And in this regard, I have great respect for the work of the writer and naturalist Gerald Durrell, who established a park on the island of Jersey, in the Channel Islands, specializing in the maintenance and breeding of rare and endangered species of animals with the aim of creating artificial populations of these species. This is the path we should follow!

Harvard scientists have made a sensational announcement: they are going to revive a long-extinct animal - the large mammoth.

For several years, researchers have been working on a cloning algorithm, confident that a functioning embryo will appear in the near future. After this, biologists will be able to introduce the genes of an animated mammoth.

Whole cloning is not yet possible because the genetic material is incomplete. However, Korean and American scientists are not going to give up.

Reborn mammoth

The task of bringing back the large mammoths is incredibly difficult. They sank into the historical and biological abyss a long time ago.

However, mammoths are the best candidates for the first cloning attempt. And all this thanks to the preserved remains, from which researchers restored the integrity of the DNA chain. And, of course, Asian and African elephants, being the closest descendants, will contribute to this difficult task.

Cloning methods

There is still debate about the best method for cloning.

As mentioned earlier, at the moment the most suitable genetic material has not been found. The muscle tissue discovered during excavations does not have complete DNA, as it was destroyed due to exposure to low temperatures.

South Korean scientists plan to obtain the necessary material for DNA reconstruction in order to clone the mammoth in its previous form. But Harvard scientists found another way out.

Harvard modification

Scientists study mammoth remains found in permafrost

They are going to modify the elephant genome, but at the same time replace some genes with mammoth genes. In general, this is considered an attempt to restore the genome of extinct animals.

The result of such cloning will not be an exact copy, but the animal will have many similar external characteristics.

A Harvard group is going to introduce the restored mammoth genome into the embryo of Asian elephants.

The time of the event is in the next two years, according to scientists. But, unfortunately, no one provides one hundred percent guarantees.

However, the path to cloning capabilities has been paved. This means that in a few decades it is possible that other extinct animals will be restored.