Cells from a woolly mammoth that died around 28,000 years ago have begun showing “signs of life” during a groundbreaking scientific experiment.
Cells from a woolly mammoth that died around 28,000 years ago have begun showing “signs of life” during a groundbreaking scientific experiment.
Scientists have since been eager to find out how viable the biological materials of the uncovered mammoth still are, all those millennia later.
Now researchers at Kindai University in Japan have found that its DNA is partially intact – and apparently they are well in the game to restore this huge prehistoric mammal back among the living.
If they succeed, it could look something like this (at first).
Model depicting mammoth calf, Stuttgart. Image credit: Apotea
After that, the cells from the 28,000-year-old specimen started to show “signs of biological activities.”
A time-lapse of mouse oocyte cells injected with mammoth nuclei. Kindai University/Scientific Reports“This suggests that, despite the years that have pᴀssed, cell activity can still happen and parts of it can be recreated,” said study author Kei Miyamoto from the Department of Genetic Engineering at Kindai University.
Five of the cells even showed highly unexpected and very promising results, namely signs of activity that usually only occur immediately preceding cell division.
Frozen mammoth calf “Lyuba” – it still had food in its stomach, Royal BC Museum. Image credit: Ruth Hartnup
These were then analyzed for the presence of undamaged nucleus-like structures, which, once found, were extracted.Once these nuclei cells were combined with mouse oocytes, mouse proteins were added, revealing some of the mammoth cells to be perfectly capable of nuclear reconsтιтution.
This, finally, suggested that even 28,000-year-old mammoth remains could harbor active nuclei.Meaning, something like, that resurrecting a specimen like this one would be quite possible.
Royal Victoria Museum, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 2018
Recent efforts, using the controversial CRISPR gene editing tool, are arguably the most promising, of late.But do we really need to resurrect a species that went extint a long time ago?
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