American scientists have announced the timing of the possible recreation of mammoths, which became extinct thousands of years ago. According to experts, in 7-10 years, these ancient representatives of the elephant family will again be able to walk on Earth.
More recently, US geneticist George Church gave an exclusive interview for the scientific publication Huffington Post. The specialist said that science has long been trying to "return" mammoths to Earth, but this is not an easy task. How the process will take place, as it turned out, can be learned from "Jurassic Park". First, geneticists will extract the necessary DNA data from the remains of the mammoth, which are frozen in the tundra. After that, experts will try to successfully weave DNA straight into the genome of the famous Asian elephant. These species of elephants are extremely related to each other and, if crossed, could well produce a "hairy" hybrid. The mammoth restoration process is possible thanks to the new Cas9 method, which can successfully replace any genome in animals.
Church hopes that within ten years, Asian elephants with mammoth genes will be able to colonize the tundra and restore the local ecosystem. In addition, it will successfully save the whole species from extinction. Development in this area will continue, experts say.
Liza Morskaya