Genetically engineered mouse with woolly fur is a step toward resurrecting extinct mammoth, company says

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It is small, but this laboratory mouse can have a blurry effect.

With curly and crowded bristles, light hair that grows three times longer than the normal laboratory mouse, genetically modified rodents embodies several traits that resemble the mystical mammoth, according to the enormous biology. Dallas private company is behind the efforts to revive the mammoth and other extinct animals.

Golossal said that the Sufi mouse will enable its scientists to test the assumptions about the relationship between the selected DNA sequence and the physical features that enabled the mammoth, and that which It became extinct about 4000 years agoTo adapt to life in cold climates.

“It is an important step towards verifying the authenticity of our approach to reviving the features that have been lost and that our goal is to restore,” Dr. Beth Shapiro, the chief science employee in Colossal, said in a press statement on Tuesday. Shapiro is currently on vacation from her role as a professor of eclipse and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

How to make the Sufi mouse

To create the Sufi mouse, Golossal said that he identified the genetic variables in which the mammotes differed from them The nearest alive relativeAsian elephant.

The company’s scientists then identified 10 variables related to the length of hair, fish, texture, color and fat in the body that are compatible with the known DNA variables known in the laboratory mouse.

For example, scientists have targeted a gene known as FGF5 (Fibriovy 5), which targets the hair growth cycle, creating longer hair, shaggy. They also changed the function of three genes related to the development of hair follicles and its structure to create woolen hair tissue, wavy coats and winged bristles.

Other targeted genes (MC1R (melanocortin 1), which regulates melanin production, included the production of mice with golden hair instead of the usual dark fur and a variable associated with changes in body weight.

In total, the team made eight adjustments at one time, using three advanced technologies, to seven mice genes.

Colossal shared an unpublished or prior scientific paper describing the research, which was not subject to peer review.

“I think the ability to liberate multiple genes at the same time in mice, do this and get the expected Sufi appearance, is a very important step,” said Loew Dalin, a professor of evolutionary genome at Stockholm University. Dalin is a calm consultant and was a co -author on the paper.

“It is a proof of the principle that Colossal has knowledge of this type of genes, including inserting mammotted genes variables in different types.”

Only “gentle mice, hair”?

Robin Lovil Padge, head of the biology laboratory in stem cells and the development science laboratory at the Francis Crick Institute in London, said the research shown in the unpublished paper was technically impressive and accurate and effective genetic changes.

“My biggest problem in the paper is that there is nothing that deals with whether the modified mice carry the cold-by introducing clear features in the mammoth-the justification provided for the implementation of the work.”

“As, we have some gentle hairy mice, without understanding the science of physiology, behavior, etc.. Nothing is close to them to see if they will eventually give useful features that resemble mammoths and teach us a little biology.”

Colossal has raised 435 million dollars since its foundation in 2021 by businessman Bin Lam and Genetic scientist at Harvard University George Cherish.

The company plans to re -create mammoths, Dodo, and Tasmania of the tiger, or ThylasinBy editing the genome every type of living in all kinds, it makes an indisputable hybrid animal from its extinct pioneer. In the end, the company wants to restore animals to their normal home.

In the case of mammoths, the company argues that the presence of mammothy -like creatures flowing across the Arctic that will pressure the snow and grass that isolate the Earth, which slows down the measuring of frosty soil and the launch of the carbon in this fragile ecosystem. Colossal has already said that he was on the right path to present the first woolen calves in 2028.

The skeptics argue that the huge amounts of money invested in the project can be better spent elsewhere. They say raising and raising hybrid animals can display the live animals used as a substitute.

“While we know a lot about mouse genetics, we know much less than the mammoth and elephants. Tori Herij, chief lecturer at the College of Biological Sciences, said in a statement shared by the Scientific Information Center, it is not known after any sections of the genome is vital to achieving the (required) characters to make the elephant suitable for life in the circle in the Arctic. Mice are clear goals, but Satan is in the details. “

“Unless you decide to make every essential editing … in the genome, you will just create a cloud approximation of any extinct creature, based on an incomplete idea of ​​what you should seem. She added that you will not” repeat “mammoth.”

Laboratory mice are usually designed genetically to obtain certain features, including that humanity, in order to conduct research on diseases and develop medicines.

Rob Taft, the main scientist at the Jackson Laboratory, is a vital medical research institution The pioneer of the mice helped in the human laboratoryHe said via e -mail that the Sufi mouse was “an innovative extension of the use of mouse as a typical system and an innovative approach to understanding animal physiology that has now become extinct.”

His biggest question was how a tremendous search would be translated into elephants.

“Work with mice or even cattle is relatively easy,” said Tft. “We know a lot about reproduction in these well -supported reproductive species and techniques and routinely used in these types, but there is a lot about unknown elephant reproduction and reproductive techniques with the help that has not been well developed for use in elephants.”

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