Animals can play a key role in slowing climate change.
Of all the diverse and incredible possibilities presented in the new technique, the gene editing known as CRISPR-Cas9, perhaps the most intriguing is the effort to restore animals back from extinction.
Candidates for de-extinction, as the process is known, include species such as the "Wandering" pigeon (the last died in captivity in 1914), the Dodo (last seen in 1662) and the sea cow (1768, only 27 years after it was discovered by Europeans.)
These projects are not dreams. Dr. George Church, a molecular biologist at Harvard University who is working on the project, believes that a variation of the first new mammoth (which disappeared about 4,000 years ago) could be born in as little as seven years.
Like other proponents of de-extinction, he hopes that animals will play a key role in slowing or reversing climate change.
If you've seen Jurassic Park (or hasn't anyone?), You're already familiar with the basic idea of how it will work.
First, scientists are trying to obtain DNA from the frozen remains of a mammoth that has been preserved for centuries frozen in the tundra.
Promotional video:
Then they will fuse, this is DNA with the DNA of an Asian elephant - this is exactly what Dr. George Church did this year.
The two are so closely related, says Dr. George Church, that if mammoths were alive today, they could successfully breed with elephants. If the DNA of Asian elephants can be altered to resemble more of their ancient relatives, then they might be able to give birth to a mammoth, a new hybrid.
Dr. George Church has already announced success. An international team of scientists has published a document showing that they have sequenced the entire mammoth genome (https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/27/woolly-ma…) into a drawing, a roadmap for changing the chromosome of the Asian elephant to make it look more like a mammoth.
Dr. George Church allows researchers to alter, remove or replace genes in any plant or animal.
Dr. George Church and other scholars say this work is decidedly not to create Mammoth Park.
It is hoped that these "cold-adapted Asian elephants" will be able to populate vast tracts of tundra and taiga in Siberia and North America, help protect endangered Asian elephants, while at the same time reviving ancient tundra pastures that could prevent melting. permafrost of Siberia.
Original article: www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/woolly-mammoth-crispr-climate_567313f8e4b0648fe302a45e