{"id":8874,"date":"2022-09-13T09:31:14","date_gmt":"2022-09-12T23:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/?p=8874"},"modified":"2022-09-13T09:43:51","modified_gmt":"2022-09-12T23:43:51","slug":"reverse-extinctions-tasmanian-tigers-and-smoky-mice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/nature\/animals\/reverse-extinctions-tasmanian-tigers-and-smoky-mice\/","title":{"rendered":"Reverse extinctions, Tasmanian tigers and smoky mice"},"content":{"rendered":"

The idea of bringing back extinct flora and fauna is not new, but the challenge is two-fold: first in sequencing a full genome from recovered DNA fragments, and then in taking stem cells from a living species with similar DNA, and turning them into cells of the extinct organism \u2013 or the closest approximation possible.<\/p>\n

The gene editing expertise for the latter process was developed by a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School who went on to found US biotechnology \u2018de-extinction\u2019 company Collosal, which is working on the resurrection of a woolly mammoth and, in collaboration with the University of Melbourne, on a project to bring back the thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, the last known of which died in a Hobart zoo in 1936. [The video above is recolorised and remastered footage from 1933. For the full story, visit the National Film and Sound Archives.]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Both projects face huge hurdles. A mammoth embryo would face a long gestation period in a surrogate mother, most likely an elephant. The thylacine might find a surrogate in a far smaller marsupial (the fat-tailed dunnart is the leading candidate, having closely-related DNA) with a much shorter gestation period, but its genome is far longer than the mammoth, making the initial stages of the process far more complex.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are scientific and ethical dilemmas facing this new frontier, and a Museums Victoria Research Institute \u2018Future Forums\u2019 event on October 6<\/a> will discuss these, as well as genetic conservation efforts for near-extinct mammals such as the smoky mouse, or \u2018Konoom\u2019 in Wadawurrung dialect. <\/span><\/p>\n

Once widespread but now reduced to fragmented populations, and greatly affected by the fires of 2019-2020, the smoky mouse is the subject of genetic studies by DNA Zoo Australia which will support ongoing conservation efforts for the species.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"There may be as few as 2500 smoky mice (Pseudomys fumeus) left in the wild. Genetic studies are supporting efforts to save the species from extinction. Image: Museums Victoria. Location: Australia, Victoria, Grampians National Park 2012<\/span><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The idea of bringing back extinct flora and fauna is not new, but the challenge is two-fold: first in sequencing a full genome from recovered DNA fragments, and then in taking stem cells…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":8875,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,56,88,8,23],"tags":[420,955,954,953],"class_list":["post-8874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animals","category-conservation","category-genetics","category-science","category-science-update","tag-extinction","tag-museums-victoria","tag-smoky-mouse","tag-tasmanian-tiger"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8874"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8874"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8882,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8874\/revisions\/8882"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceillustrated.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}