Animal Resurrection?

De-extinction of mammoths through DNA sequencing and genome editing can help restore the grassland system, scientists have claimed.

18:15 20 July 2016

Mammoths, which became extinct roughly 10,000 years ago, played a critical role in the grassland as they prevented trees from growing on the plains and helped to disperse nutrients across large distances. Scientists are now attempting to bring them back in the hope to restore the grassland ecosystem using DNA sequencing and genome editing.

 

According to Popular Science, de-extinction of mammoths can be achieved by cloning the animals using material from ancient specimen. This process has been attempted following the discovery of the remains of an adult female mammoth in May 2013.  Another option is to alter the DNA of the Asian elephant, the mammoth’s living relative. This is considered by scientists working on the Harvard Mammoth Revival and Revive and Restore program using CRISPR genome editing.

 

'The tundra that arose in the absence of these species is now contributing to human driven climate change,' the project explains.

 

'Without grasslands to insulate the tundra's permafrost, the permafrost is melting, releasing greenhouse gases that have been trapped for tens and hundreds of thousands of years.

 

'The melting of the world's permafrost is equivalent to burning all the world's forests 2 ½ times.'