05-08-2014, 07:10 PM
Revival of the species – The Beginning
The animal revival has actually already been done. In 2003, a group of Spanish and French scientists have revived a goat bucardo that lived in the Pyrenees. It was extensively hunted for couple of centuries and there was only a dozen or so of them left during the end of 1980s. The last species, female named Celia, died around 2000. Scientists preserved her cells, however, and have tried to revive her.
The way they have done this is by injecting the nuclei from the Celia’s cells into the goat eggs that have previously been emptied from their own DNA. These new, hybrid eggs have been injected into the surrogate mothers later on. Out of 57 implantations, only seven goats have become pregnant and six of these had a miscarriage. However, one goat remained pregnant and it gave birth by C-section. The newborn died, however, some 10 minutes later due to the breathing failure.
This does not stop scientists from thinking about doing it again, though. Many popular species have been extinct and their revival would mean a lot to science as their study could bring some new discoveries. Especially since the technology has improved tremendously since the goat Celia. The knowledge of animal cloning has been expanded a lot. The way Celia has been “revived” is now old-fashioned; today, we have the ability to make adult animal cells return into an embryo-like state, which can then develop into any cell type, including sperm or eggs. Embryos can be made from these by further genetic manipulation.
Another revival is in the progress, called the Lazarus project. Scientists working here are trying to revive the extinct species of frog with the unique way of breeding (female swallows the eggs once they have been fertilized by the male). In order to revive this species, scientists are using their relatives – Australian marsh frogs. They will insert the target nuclei into the eggs that have previously been emptied from the genetic material. The problem is that it is a very slow process, as new, fresh eggs are constantly needed and they are hard to come by. However, the embryos of extinct frog actually exist now, which means that the whole project might actually be successful.
The animal revival has actually already been done. In 2003, a group of Spanish and French scientists have revived a goat bucardo that lived in the Pyrenees. It was extensively hunted for couple of centuries and there was only a dozen or so of them left during the end of 1980s. The last species, female named Celia, died around 2000. Scientists preserved her cells, however, and have tried to revive her.
The way they have done this is by injecting the nuclei from the Celia’s cells into the goat eggs that have previously been emptied from their own DNA. These new, hybrid eggs have been injected into the surrogate mothers later on. Out of 57 implantations, only seven goats have become pregnant and six of these had a miscarriage. However, one goat remained pregnant and it gave birth by C-section. The newborn died, however, some 10 minutes later due to the breathing failure.
This does not stop scientists from thinking about doing it again, though. Many popular species have been extinct and their revival would mean a lot to science as their study could bring some new discoveries. Especially since the technology has improved tremendously since the goat Celia. The knowledge of animal cloning has been expanded a lot. The way Celia has been “revived” is now old-fashioned; today, we have the ability to make adult animal cells return into an embryo-like state, which can then develop into any cell type, including sperm or eggs. Embryos can be made from these by further genetic manipulation.
Another revival is in the progress, called the Lazarus project. Scientists working here are trying to revive the extinct species of frog with the unique way of breeding (female swallows the eggs once they have been fertilized by the male). In order to revive this species, scientists are using their relatives – Australian marsh frogs. They will insert the target nuclei into the eggs that have previously been emptied from the genetic material. The problem is that it is a very slow process, as new, fresh eggs are constantly needed and they are hard to come by. However, the embryos of extinct frog actually exist now, which means that the whole project might actually be successful.
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