Will Jurassic Park become a reality?
Wird "Jurassic Park" schon bald Realität?
Ulli Kulke, Die Welt, 22.05.2008
Translation: "Inopressa"
Australian scientists were the first to awaken to life the genetic material of an extinct animal species – they succeeded in this trick with the gene of the Tasmanian tiger. The discovery allows us to hope that long-extinct animal species, such as mammoths and dinosaurs, will one day come to life
The Tasmanian devil and the Tasmanian tiger should not be confused. The first is a species from the family of marsupial predators that still lives on the Australian–owned island of Tasmania. The second belongs to the family of marsupial wolves and does not live anywhere, since it became extinct in 1936. And although three years ago there was a short-term hope for his return, it turned into a bitter disappointment. But now, according to that plan, his genes have been implanted in mouse embryos. And now a "tiger" lives in the mouse. The last member of the extinct species, whose name was Benjamin, died of old age at the Hobart Zoo.
What a group of Australian and American scientists have achieved, united around biologist Andrew Pask from the University of Melbourne, is a small sensation, because they managed to implant the genes of the Tasmanian tiger into mouse embryos. For the first time, the genetic information of an extinct animal has been materialized in living tissue. In this case, we are talking about a section of DNA responsible for the formation of bone and cartilage tissue. Biologists obtained the genetic material from a tissue that was alcohol-treated 100 years ago.
Pask immediately stated that if there is enough DNA, the same technique is applicable to other genetic material, in particular, to the genes of long-extinct animals, such as a dinosaur or mammoth. He also mentioned Neanderthals.
What is unimaginable for some, others are discussing right now at a conference in Bonn dedicated to biological diversity. Of course, we need to do everything possible to protect endangered species – but is it possible, as a last resort, to revive animals that have disappeared from the face of the earth? Will Steven Spielberg's Hollywood movie Jurassic Park, where crocodiles lay dinosaur eggs, soon become a reality?
It's not that simple. Is there a chance to find intact genes of extinct animals, this is only one of the questions. Thomas Knebelsberger, a young biologist from the laboratory of the State Zoological Collection of Munich, says: "To recreate an organism, you need information not only about the sequence of genes, but rather about the overall structure of chromosomes. We also need suitable eggs containing substances that turn genes on and off." In order to be able to restore animals by cloning, as the scientist believes, the tissue had to be preserved in liquid nitrogen at a temperature of minus 180 degrees Celsius.
Difficulties with reproducing the Tasmanian devil gene indicate that the probability of obtaining a complete genome of long-extinct animal species is very insignificant. The oldest DNA molecules discovered by scientists today are 100 thousand years old. So it will take a very, very long time to wait for the genome of a dinosaur that should be at least 65 million years old to be found.
Scientists who look far ahead and have a rich imagination, who dream of such resurrections, argue that the next generations of scientists will have a good chance of success if close relatives of an extinct animal still live on earth. If we take into account that today the closest relatives of dinosaurs are birds, then we can say not only that "Jurassic Park" is far from reality, but also about the error of the screenwriters – because there little lizards hatched from crocodile eggs.
Hendrik Poyner from McMaster University in Canada is going to recreate a mammoth – a project that many are thinking about, because the well-preserved genetic material of dead animals can be found in the thousand-year permafrost in Siberia. Some finds have already taken place. "If you have a mammoth genome," Poyner says, "compare it with the genome of its closest relative, the Asian elephant. Then, gene by gene, you will be able to remake the genetic material of an elephant in the image and likeness of a mammoth."
But even if all this is possible from the point of view of biotechnology, it is not necessary to implement all the existing plans. If Svante Paabo from the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig is able to realize his dream and recreate the genome of a Neanderthal, then the question will certainly arise whether it is necessary to give him a second life.
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26.05.2008