{"id":415781,"date":"2022-03-13T16:50:01","date_gmt":"2022-03-13T13:50:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/forget-mammoths-study-shows-how-to-resurrect-christmas-island-rats\/"},"modified":"2022-03-13T16:50:01","modified_gmt":"2022-03-13T13:50:01","slug":"forget-mammoths-study-shows-how-to-resurrect-christmas-island-rats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/forget-mammoths-study-shows-how-to-resurrect-christmas-island-rats\/","title":{"rendered":"#Forget mammoths, study shows how to resurrect Christmas Island rats"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a40c480720d5\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a40c480720d5\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/forget-mammoths-study-shows-how-to-resurrect-christmas-island-rats\/#%E2%80%9CForget_mammoths_study_shows_how_to_resurrect_Christmas_Island_rats%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;Forget mammoths, study shows how to resurrect Christmas Island rats&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CForget_mammoths_study_shows_how_to_resurrect_Christmas_Island_rats%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;Forget mammoths, study shows how to resurrect Christmas Island rats&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2022\/a-team-of-researchers.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2022\/a-team-of-researchers.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"A team of researchers used the brown rat, commonly used in lab experiments and seen in this photo, as a modern reference species to help reconstruct the genome of the extinct Christmas Island rat.\">\n<figure class=\"article-img\">\n            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2022\/a-team-of-researchers.jpg\" alt=\"A team of researchers used the brown rat, commonly used in lab experiments and seen in this photo, as a modern reference species\" title=\"A team of researchers used the brown rat, commonly used in lab experiments and seen in this photo, as a modern reference species to help reconstruct the genome of the extinct Christmas Island rat.\" width=\"800\" height=\"530\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-darken text-low-up text-truncate-js text-truncate mt-3\">\n                A team of researchers used the brown rat, commonly used in lab experiments and seen in this photo, as a modern reference species to help reconstruct the genome of the extinct Christmas Island rat.<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Ever since the movie Jurassic Park, the idea of bringing extinct animals back to life has captured the public&#8217;s imagination\u2014but what might scientists turn their attention towards first?<\/p>\n<section class=\"article-banner first-banner ads-336x280\">\n         <!-- \/4988204\/Phys_Story_InText_Box --><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p>Instead of focusing on iconic species like the woolly mammoth or the Tasmanian tiger, a team of paleogeneticists have studied how, using gene editing, they could resurrect the humble Christmas Island rat, which died out around 120 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Though they did not follow through and create a living specimen, they say their paper, published in <i>Current Biology<\/i> on Wednesday, demonstrates just how close scientists working on de-extinction projects could actually get using current <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am not doing de-extinction, but I think it&#8217;s a really interesting idea, and technically it&#8217;s really exciting,&#8221; senior author Tom Gilbert, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Copenhagen, told AFP.<\/p>\n<p>There are three pathways to bringing back extinct animals: back-breeding related species to achieve lost traits; cloning, which was used to create Dolly the sheep in 1996; and finally genetic editing, which Gilbert and colleagues looked at.<\/p>\n<p>The idea is to take surviving DNA of an extinct species, and compare it to the genome of a closely-related modern species, then use techniques like CRISPR to edit the modern species&#8217; genome in the places where it differs.<\/p>\n<p>The edited cells could then be used to create an embryo implanted in a surrogate host.<\/p>\n<p>Gilbert said old DNA was like a book that has gone through a shredder, while the genome of a modern species is like an intact &#8220;reference book&#8221; that can be used to piece together the fragments of its degraded counterpart.<\/p>\n<p>His interest in Christmas Island rats was piqued when a colleague studied their skins to look for evidence of pathogens that caused their extinction around 1900.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s thought that black rats brought on European ships wiped out the native species, described in an 1887 entry of the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London as a &#8220;fine new Rat,&#8221; large in size with a long yellow-tipped tail and small rounded ears.<\/p>\n<p><b>Key functions lost<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The team used brown rats, commonly used in lab experiments, as the modern reference species, and found they could reconstruct 95 percent of the Christmas Island rat genome.<\/p>\n<p>That may sound like a big success, but the five percent they couldn&#8217;t recover was from regions of the genome that controlled smell and immunity, meaning that the recovered rat might look the same but would lack key functionality.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The take home is, even if we have basically the perfect ancient DNA situation, we&#8217;ve got a really good sample, we&#8217;ve sequenced the hell out of it, we&#8217;re still lacking five percent of it,&#8221; said Gilbert.<\/p>\n<p>The two species diverged around 2.6 million years ago: close in evolutionary time, but not close enough to fully reconstruct the lost species&#8217; full genome.<\/p>\n<p>This has important implications for de-extinction efforts, such as a project by US bio<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">science<\/a> firm Colossal to resurrect the mammoth, which died out around 4,000 years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Mammoths have roughly the same evolutionary distance from modern elephants as brown rats and Christmas Island rats.<\/p>\n<p>Teams in Australia meanwhile are looking at reviving the Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, whose last surviving member died in captivity in 1936.<\/p>\n<p>Even if gene-editing were perfected, replica animals created with the technique would thus have certain critical deficiencies.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s say you&#8217;re bringing back a mammoth solely to have a hairy elephant in a zoo to raise money or get conservation awareness\u2014it doesn&#8217;t really matter,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>But if the goal is to bring back the animal in its exact original form &#8220;that&#8217;s never going to h<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>en,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Gilbert admitted that, while the science was fascinating, he had mixed feelings on de-extinction projects.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not convinced it is the best use of anyone&#8217;s money,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If you had to choose between bringing back something or protecting what was left, I&#8217;d put my money into protection.&#8221;<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<div class=\"article-main__explore my-4 d-print-none\">\n<p>                                            Forget mammoths\u2014These researchers are exploring bringing back the extinct Christmas Island rat\n                                        <\/p><\/div>\n<hr class=\"mb-4\"\/>\n<div class=\"article-main__more p-4\">\n                                                                                                <strong>More information:<\/strong><br \/>\n                                                Jianqing Lin, Probing the genomic limits of de-extinction in the Christmas island rat, <i>Current Biology<\/i> (2022).  <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-doi=\"1\" href=\"http:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1016\/j.cub.2022.02.027\">DOI: 10.1016\/j.cub.2022.02.027<\/a>. <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cell.com\/current-biology\/fulltext\/S0960-9822(22)00249-4\">www.cell.com\/current-biology\/f \u2026 0960-9822(22)00249-4<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"article-main__note mt-4\">\n                                                \u00a9 2022 AFP<\/p>\n<p>                                        <!-- print only --><\/p>\n<div class=\"d-none d-print-block\">\n<p>                                                 <strong>Citation<\/strong>:<br \/>\n                                                 Forget mammoths, study shows how to resurrect Christmas Island rats (2022, March 13)<br \/>\n                                                 retrieved 14 March 2022<br \/>\n                                                 from https:\/\/phys.org\/<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" 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Ever since the movie Jurassic Park, the idea of bringing extinct&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":415782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/2022\/a-team-of-researchers.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-415781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sciencee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}