{"id":115134,"date":"2024-10-17T09:52:47","date_gmt":"2024-10-17T02:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=115134"},"modified":"2024-10-17T09:52:47","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T02:52:47","slug":"how-a-putrid-find-in-a-museum-cupboard-could-be-the-key-to-bringing-the-tasmanian-tiger-back-to-life-extinct-wildlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=115134","title":{"rendered":"How a \u2018putrid\u2019 find in a museum cupboard could be the key to bringing the Tasmanian tiger back to life | Extinct wildlife"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\"><span style=\"color:var(--drop-cap);font-weight:500;\" class=\"dcr-15rw6c2\">B<\/span>reakthroughs sometimes turn up in unexpected places. The researchers working on the international push to bring back the thylacine say they found theirs in a long-ignored bucket in the back of a cupboard at a Melbourne museum.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">It contained an astonishingly well-preserved head of the extinct marsupial, also known as the Tasmanian tiger.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">\u201cIt was literally a head in a bucket of ethanol in the back of a cupboard that had just been dumped there with all the skin removed, and been sitting there for about 110 years,\u201d Prof Andrew Pask, the head of the thylacine integrated genetic restoration research (with the perfect acronym Tigrr) lab at the University of Melbourne, says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">\u201cIt was pretty putrid, a completely gruesome sight. People had chopped large chunks off it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">Aesthetics aside, the specimen had a lot going for it. It contained material the scientists thought would be impossible to find \u2013 including long RNA molecules crucial to reconstructing an extinct animal\u2019s genome. \u201cThis was the miracle that happened with this specimen,\u201d he says. \u201cIt blew my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"7528c998-21c7-4d76-8ff0-f63ac605fb7e\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement\" class=\" dcr-173mewl\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1fujct4\"><span class=\"dcr-1inf02i\"><svg width=\"18\" height=\"13\" viewbox=\"0 0 18 13\"><path d=\"M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">The soft tissue of the specimen that researchers dubbed \u2018head in a bucket\u2019 contains preserved long RNA molecules, which are crucial to reconstructing the thylacine genome.<\/span> Photograph: Andrew Pask\/University of Melbourne and Museums Victoria<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">A year on, Pask says it has advanced the work of the team of Australian and US scientists who are trying to resurrect the species more than he expected at this stage. \u201cWe are further along than I thought we would be and we have completed a lot of things that we thought would be very challenging, and others said would be impossible,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"the-plan-to-de-extinct-the-thylacine\" class=\"dcr-12ibh7f\">The plan to \u2018de-extinct\u2019 the thylacine<\/h2>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2022\/aug\/16\/de-extinction-scientists-are-planning-the-multimillion-dollar-resurrection-of-the-tasmanian-tiger\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">project to bring back the thylacine<\/a> is being driven by Colossal, a Texas-based biotechnology \u201cde-extinction and species preservation\u201d company that is also aiming to recreate the woolly mammoth and the dodo using genetic engineering techniques.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"9222e67f-843c-4312-9360-f526bd9a82a5\" data-spacefinder-role=\"supporting\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement\" class=\" dcr-a2pvoh\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1pvqcrw\"><span class=\"dcr-1inf02i\"><svg width=\"18\" height=\"13\" viewbox=\"0 0 18 13\"><path d=\"M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Entrepreneur Ben Lamm, who leads Colossal, the biotech firm hoping to resurrect the Tasmanian tiger.<\/span> Photograph: Supplied\/Colossal Biosciences<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">Led by the tech and software entrepreneur Ben Lamm, Colossal has raised US$235m, employs 155 people directly and is funding research at 13 laboratories across the globe. They include the Tigrr lab, which operates at the University of Melbourne School of Biosciences.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">The thylacine was Australia\u2019s only marsupial apex predator. It once lived across the continent, but was restricted to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/tasmania\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">Tasmania<\/a> about 3,000 years ago. Dog-like in appearance and with stripes across its back, it was extensively hunted after European colonisation. The last known survivor died in captivity in 1936 and it was officially declared extinct in the 1980s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">Colossal says researchers have made several breakthroughs in its work on the species, putting the company much closer to its goal of returning the species to the wild in Tasmania. They include what they say is the highest quality ancient genome ever produced, with just 45 gaps in a genetic blueprint that contains about 3bn pieces of information.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">Lamm says it is an \u201cincredible scientific leap\u201d putting the program \u201con track to de-extinct the thylacine\u201d, while other recent breakthroughs will be immediately useful in protecting critically endangered species. \u201cWe are pushing as fast as possible to create the science necessary to make extinction a thing of the past,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">The soft tissue of the Museums Victoria specimen that researchers dubbed \u201chead in a bucket\u201d contained preserved long sequences of DNA \u2013 genetic material that is the same in almost every cell nucleus in a body \u2013 but also long RNA molecules. Pask says the latter were crucial, and unexpected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">RNA is much less stable than DNA. It varies in different types of tissue within a specimen and contains what is effectively a readout of the active genes needed for a particular tissue to function. It meant researchers were able to get information related to the animal\u2019s nose, eyes, tongue and other facial material, giving a picture of what a thylacine could taste, what it could smell, what kind of vision it had and how its brain functioned.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">Pask says the result is the first annotated extinct animal genome, what he calls \u201can incredible blueprint\u201d. \u201cIt helps us prove that what we are bringing back is genuinely a thylacine and not some hybrid animal,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"07cce235-6303-4bc9-b4e2-872cbd67ce3d\" data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" data-spacefinder-type=\"model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement\" class=\" dcr-173mewl\"><figcaption data-spacefinder-role=\"inline\" class=\"dcr-1fujct4\"><span class=\"dcr-1inf02i\"><svg width=\"18\" height=\"13\" viewbox=\"0 0 18 13\"><path d=\"M18 3.5v8l-1.5 1.5h-15l-1.5-1.5v-8l1.5-1.5h3.5l2-2h4l2 2h3.5l1.5 1.5zm-9 7.5c1.9 0 3.5-1.6 3.5-3.5s-1.6-3.5-3.5-3.5-3.5 1.6-3.5 3.5 1.6 3.5 3.5 3.5z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><span class=\"dcr-1qvd3m6\">Prof Andrew Pask holding a dunnart, from which researchers hope to take stem cells in order to create an approximation of thylacine cells.<\/span> Photograph: Colossal Biosciences<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">The thylacine researchers aim to take stem cells from a living species with similar DNA to a thylacine, the <a href=\"https:\/\/animalia.bio\/fat-tailed-dunnart\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">fat-tailed dunnart<\/a>, and turn them into the closest approximation of thylacine cells possible using gene editing expertise developed by George Church, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and Colossal\u2019s co-founder.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"a-thylacine-looking-thing-but-what-comes-next\" class=\"dcr-12ibh7f\">A thylacine-looking thing \u2013 but what comes next?<\/h2>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">The announcement about the genetic breakthrough came ahead of an event at the SXSW festival in Sydney on Friday, where Lamm and Pask will talk about their work with the actor Luke Hemsworth. The Hemsworths have been vocal and financial backers of the project.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">Colossal claims several other breakthroughs in their recent work, including the development of the first artificial reproductive technology to induce ovulation in marsupials, a step that could lead to captive breeding programs for threatened species.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">They say they have fertilised single-cell embryos and culture them to over halfway through pregnancy in an artificial uterus, and refined work engineering resistance to cane toad toxin in the cells of another marsupial, the northern quoll.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">On when a thylacine might be created, Pask says he expects the first \u201cthylacine-looking thing\u201d could be born within three to five years, but that he \u201cwouldn\u2019t call that a thylacine\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">He says the researchers are confident in creating a thylacine\u2019s skull, legs and even stripes, but there are \u201cstill other things we still don\u2019t know how to do\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">Other scientists are watching on with varying degrees of caution and scepticism. Some ask why so much funding and effort is going into bring back species when thousands that are still alive are on the brink of extinction. Euan Ritchie, a professor of wildlife ecology and conservation at Deakin University, says it is an ambitious project and likely to lead to breakthroughs that could help with conservation. But he says there will be other challenges \u201cif-and-when we bring back thylacine-like animals\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">\u201cI think we will probably get some thylacine-like animal, but they won\u2019t actually be thylacines. The question is: what comes next?\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">\u201cHow will they behave in the wild and what effects might they have in the ecosystems? We have no idea how they are going to behave because there are no living thylacines left, and when you can bring back a thylacine-like animal it has got no other thylacine-like animals to learn from.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1eu361v\">\u201cThat\u2019s at least as big a challenge, if not a bigger challenge, than the genetic challenge. As an ecologist, that\u2019s the big unknown.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/2024\/oct\/17\/how-a-putrid-find-in-a-museum-cupboard-could-be-the-key-to-bringing-the-tasmanian-tiger-back-to-life\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Breakthroughs sometimes turn up in unexpected places. The researchers working on the international push to bring back the thylacine say they found theirs in a long-ignored bucket in the back &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=115134\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8628],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115134\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}