But they also found that about 5% of its original genes could not be recovered, they reported Wednesday in Current Biology , the peer-reviewed scientific journal.”They have evolved to be so different, we can’t recover the sequence,” said Tom Gilbert, one of the study’s co-authors and the head of the Center for Evolutionary Hologenomics at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.Asteroid avoidance: 230-foot wide asteroid initially expected to hit Earth in 2023 was false alarm What is Deltacron?: There may be a new COVID variant, Deltacron.Here’s what we know about it.So, don’t start itching to book your tickets to Jurassic Park just yet.
Without a totally accurate genome, scientists cannot predict what might be brought to life.Researchers will want to do similar experiments to approximate how close a replica of the extinct animal they will create, Gilbert said in an email interview.
“And you can then decide if you are happy with that as the end goal.
You may be … or you may feel it’s not quite what you wanted,” he said.”But the point is – this analysis is not hard to do and can be quite informative.” The researchers at the University of Copenhagen and Shantou University in China used DNA from two dried Christmas Island rat skins to sequence its genome and compare it to the modern Norway rat.In comparing the two, the researchers found that some of the missing Christmas Island rat genes dealt with its ability to smell.So a reborn Christmas Island rat might “lack attributes likely critical to surviving in its natural or natural-like environment,” they write in the report.However, using CRISPR gene editing technology , the rat to be brought back could be a hybrid animal including the immunity genes of the Norway rat, which “could even have some potential benefit,” they wrote.What’s everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day But first, Gilbert plans to try editing the genome of a black rat to change it into a Norway rat, he said in a description of the research on the university’s website .
“It’s a fascinating idea in technology, but one has to wonder if that’s the best use of money as opposed to keeping the things alive that are still here,” he said.Ross MacPhee, a senior curator at the American Museum of Natural History and a co-author of the study, wondered whether gene editing technology might not be better spent helping current species such as the endangered California condor, he told NBC News .”There are situations where you’d dearly love a species to do better, but we also need to recognize that it’s what people have done to the environment that has limited the opportunities for these species to have any kind of decent life,” MacPhee said.Colossal Laboratories , the company behind the effort to use elephant DNA to bring back mammoths is not deterred.
Gene sequencing technology for ancient and modern DNA is “steadily improving,” Harvard Medical School biologist and Colossal co-founder George Church told Science .Colossal is working on transferring the genes in mammoths that allow them to tolerate the cold into modern elephants.”The main goal is not making ‘perfect photocopies,’ but making diverse and selective hybrids,” Church said.
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