Japan aims to resurrect Mammoth in 5 years

Ricky · Jan 28, 2011

Source - http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110117/wl_asia_afp/japansciencemammoth_20110117104445

TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese researchers will launch a project this year to resurrect the long-extinct mammoth by using cloning technology to bring the ancient pachyderm back to life in around five years time.

The researchers will try to revive the species by obtaining tissue this summer from the carcass of a mammoth preserved in a Russian research laboratory, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

"Preparations to realise this goal have been made," Akira Iritani, leader of the team and a professor emeritus of Kyoto University, told the mass-circulation daily.

Under the plan, the nuclei of mammoth cells will be inserted into an elephant's egg cell from which the nuclei have been removed, to create an embryo containing mammoth genes, the report said.

The embryo will then be inserted into an elephant's uterus in the hope that the animal will eventually give birth to a baby mammoth.

The elephant is the closest modern relative of the mammoth, a huge woolly mammal believed to have died out with the last Ice Age.

Some mammoth remains still retain usable tissue samples, making it possible to recover cells for cloning, unlike dinosaurs, which disappeared around 65 million years ago and whose remains exist only as fossils

Researchers hope to achieve their aim within five to six years, the Yomiuri said.

The team, which has invited a Russian mammoth researcher and two US elephant experts to join the project, has established a technique to extract DNA from frozen cells, previously an obstacle to cloning attempts because of the damage cells sustained in the freezing process.

Another Japanese researcher, Teruhiko Wakayama of the Riken Centre for Developmental Biology, succeeded in 2008 in cloning a mouse from the cells of another that had been kept in temperatures similar to frozen ground for 16 years.

The scientists extracted a cell nucleus from an organ of a dead mouse and planted it into the egg of another mouse which was alive, leading to the birth of the cloned mouse.

Based on Wakayama's techniques, Iritani's team devised a method to extract the nuclei of mammoth eggs without damaging them.

But a successful cloning will also pose challenges for the team, Iritani warned.

"If a cloned embryo can be created, we need to discuss, before transplanting it into the womb, how to breed (the mammoth) and whether to display it to the public," Iritani said.

"After the mammoth is born, we will examine its ecology and genes to study why the species became extinct and other factors."

More than 80 percent of all mammoth finds have been dug up in the permafrost of the vast Sakha Republic in eastern Siberia.

Exactly why a majority of the huge creatures that once strode in large herds across Eurasia and North America died out towards the end of the last Ice Age has generated fiery debate.

Some experts hold that mammoths were hunted to extinction by the species that was to become the planet's dominant predator -- humans.

Others argue that climate change was more to blame, leaving a species adapted for frozen climes ill-equipped to cope with a warming world.
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Returning Truth · Jan 28, 2011

Im almost 100% there's already a thread like this.

I say why not though resurrection may be taking things a little far.... what next? dinosaurs ?

angus07 · Jan 28, 2011

returning truth, it says in the article that dinosaurs are not a possible candidate as their only remains are that of fossils which are not sufficient enough to extract the needed nuclei,genes, etc.

OT: i think it is a breakthrough and a fantastic project. I am just unsure how a mammoth would get along in this modern world :/

Govind · Jan 28, 2011

It probably wouldn't live very long.

capper4lyf · Jan 28, 2011

That would be awesome, seriously id be amazed to see how this would happen.

JohnK · Jan 28, 2011

Yeah, I remember an exact thread a few weeks ago.

I still think it's pointless. A novelty, and a first, but ultimately pointless.

iLikePaper · Jan 28, 2011

Japan has too much technology, but I like it since I can't wait for more technology.

Klkool1 · Jan 28, 2011

Truely ground breaking.

SandManConservation · Jan 28, 2011

The scientist that says he can do this has only been able to use DNA that is 16 years old, where as this mammoth DNA is much older than that... obviously.

hey guys · Jan 28, 2011

Unless they manage an area with food that a mammoth eats, a arctic environment. It wont live too long.

Loren · Jan 28, 2011

Genetics is a terribly fascinating and scary thing.

The Genome Project ( found here: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/home.shtml ) has brought an incredible amount of benefits for human life and for the world as a whole. Everyday, they are literally finding new things about how diseases are connected, how cancer develops over the years. How certain traits are passed into generations.

I think it's great to have all of these resources, especially when it comes to the development of organs and stem cell research. (If you don't agree with the morals of stem cell research, obtain some terrible disease then come talk to me.)

The scary thing though is, we are able to do things like, replicate a mammoth. Since it is so closely related to species that inhabit our world in this period it is possible to "rebirth" the mammoth.

But if you think about it, it's damn scary. If they can succeed with this, the technology will obviously be used in the wrong ways (Nazi Germany's beliefs).

Remarkable to say the least, I hope all turns out well, and I am SURE that they will succeed in doing this. Hell, they replicated a sheep that would have been perfectly healthy if it didn't obtain a bacterial disease. Damn vets didn't check their equipment (I personally blame them).

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Japan aims to resurrect Mammoth in 5 years

Ricky Formerly Panic

Returning Truth Forum Addict

angus07 Guru

Govind The One Musketeer

capper4lyf Grand Master

JohnK A$AP

iLikePaper I heard you liek "paper"?

Klkool1 Forum Addict

SandManConservation Newcomer

hey guys Grand Master

Loren Apprentice

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Japan aims to resurrect Mammoth in 5 years

Thread Tools

Ricky Formerly Panic

Returning Truth Forum Addict

angus07 Guru

Govind The One Musketeer

capper4lyf Grand Master

JohnK A$AP

iLikePaper I heard you liek "paper"?

Klkool1 Forum Addict

SandManConservation Newcomer

hey guys Grand Master

Loren Apprentice