A 3D reconstruction of the woolly mammoth’s genome could help revive the extinct species: Shots

Scientists have recreated the three-dimensional structure of the woolly mammoth’s genetic blueprint.

The achievement, described Thursday in the journal Cell, marks what is believed to be the first time scientists have been able to produce a multidimensional version of the genome of a complex extinct species.

The breakthrough should provide important new insights into the biology of a creature that has long sparked fascination. In addition, the work could help efforts to raise a living version of the animal, the researchers and others said.

“It’s exciting,” says Erez Lieberman Aiden, a professor of molecular and human genetics and director of the Center for Genome Architecture at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “We think it will be very valuable.”

For years, scientists have been able to look back in time by analyzing fragments of ancient DNA recovered from bones, fossilized teeth, mummies and even strands of hair.

“In biology, one of the most powerful tools for understanding the history of life on this planet is ancient DNA,” says Aiden. “It’s an incredibly powerful tool for understanding the history of life.”

But there’s only so much scientists can learn from bits of DNA. So Aiden and his colleagues began an international effort to try to recreate the three-dimensional structure of the DNA, including chromosomes, of an extinct creature.

“By doing that, you’ll be able to see exactly how that chromosome is formed in a living cell, and you’ll be able to get a deeper understanding of the genomes of ancient and extinct species and how how those genomes worked – which genes were turned on and off in particular tissues,” says Aiden.

Looking for mammoth samples on eBay

Scientists focused on the woolly mammoth, a large species of shaggy elephant that roamed the tundra thousands of years ago.

“At first we had embarrassingly bad ideas. I’m a little embarrassed to admit it,” Aiden told NPR. We said, ‘Oh, you know, this looks like a nice piece of mammoth on eBay. Let’s try this.’ It’s a bit boring, isn’t it, to tell you that. Ebay is a bad place to get your mammoth samples.”

After searching for five years, the team finally found a well-preserved mammoth specimen: the skin from behind the ear of a 52,000-year-old female, which was discovered freeze-dried in Siberia in 2018.

“It was a piece of buffalo hide that was, you know, fur. True to the name – it really was mammoth fur skin, “says Olga Dudchenko, an assistant professor at the Baylor Center for Genome Architecture, who worked on the research. “And this is actually not as trivial as it seems, because very often hair is lost. And that is actually an interesting indicator that this is an example of considerable quality.”

Scientists can look at individual mammoth genes

In fact, the quality of the sample allowed the team to extract the DNA and use a technique known as Hi-C to reconstruct the three-dimensional structure of all 28 mammoth chromosomes — the extinct creature’s entire genome, the researchers reported.

“We were able to assemble the genome of a woolly mammoth just as 25 years ago people were excited to assemble our genomes for the first time,” says Aiden. “Now we can do this for animals that were long gone. This is definitely a historic moment.”

Not only that, the team was able to look at the genome to begin to learn what individual genes did.

“And that’s really exciting to be able to look at an extinct creature and be able to say, ‘Oh, yeah. I can see that this gene was active. That gene was on. This gene was turned off. Oh, isn’t that amazing?’” says Aiden. “To be able to do all these specific things on a woolly mammoth is exciting.”

In fact, by comparing the mammoth genome to the DNA of modern elephants, scientists have already uncovered clues about what made the woolly mammoth tick. woolly.

“We’ve been discussing internally whether we should start a Hair Club for mammoths?” Dudchekno joke.

Genetic findings could help efforts to bring back mammoths

But seriously, this knowledge could help efforts already underway to bring a version of the mammoth back from extinction — by endowing modern-day Asian elephants with mammoth features, such as their hair, and perhaps even free them to graze the tundra. again.

“I think this might be useful for extinction,” Aiden says.

Other scientists praised the work.

“I think it’s great,” says Vincent Lynch, an associate professor of biological sciences at the University at Buffalo, who was not involved in the research.

But Lynch isn’t a fan of trying to bring back the mammoth. The unintended consequences of this could be catastrophic, he says. And the money for such a project would be much better spent saving the elephants that still roam the planet today.

“There’s a huge potential for unintended consequences,” Lynch says. “Just think of all the other invasive species that are in the world. You don’t really know the effect the species will have on the environment until they get there.”

And Karl Flessa, a professor of geosciences at the University of Arizona agrees with the scientific achievement and folly of trying to bring back the extinct pachyderm.

“The conservation of genetic architecture by the woolly mammoth is truly remarkable,” says Flessa. “But just because you can do it, doesn’t mean you should. A genetically modified Asian elephant is not a woolly mammoth. And releasing such an animal into the wild would be arrogant and irresponsible.”

Others disagree.

“It is exciting to see that 3D architecture can be preserved in ancient samples. This will help move towards a complete de novo assembled mammoth genome, which may reveal features of the genome that may be important for ‘mammoth extinction,” Eriona Hysolli, who leads a project to create an Asian elephant with mammoth features at Colossal Laboratories & Biosciences in Dallas, wrote NPR in an email.

Still, Robert Fleischer, a senior scientist for the Center for Conservation Genomics at the National Zoo and Smithsonian Conservation Institute in Washington, says the prospect is exciting.

“If I was a 12-year-old in my high school science class, I probably would have thought that was pretty cool,” says Fleischer. “And I still think it’s pretty cool.”