Scientists Are Trying to Bring Woolly Mammoths Back From the Dead. They Started With Mice.
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Colossal Laboratories & Biosciences has created a genetically engineered mouse that expresses some traits of the long-extinct woolly mammoth.
Changes in the mice included hair length, color and texture, along with extra fat pads for survival in cold climates.
Ultimately, Colossal wants to be able to alter the genomes of Asian elephants to bring them as close to the mammoth as possible.
It's been 10,000 years since the footsteps of a woolly mammoth thundered across the steppes of Siberia, but only a few years since scientists have wondered: Is it possible to bring them back?
Mammoths only exist as imposing skeletons in museums for now, but if the de-extinction efforts of Colossal Laboratories & Biosciences succeed, a mammoth (or something like it) might set foot on Earth for the first time since the rise of Egypt's New Kingdom. Colossal has genetically engineered a 'woolly mouse' whose genome was edited to give it some of the same traits as a mammoth.
These are not enormous mice with tusks, but the unexpectedly adorable creatures did inherit the long, woolly coats and extra fat pads that helped mammoths survive frigid weather. Colossal ultimately wants to be able to genetically engineer Asian elephants, the woolly mammoth's closet living relatives, to create an animal that comes as close to a mammoth as possible.
How did mice get a mammoth makeover? It started with analyzing 59 genomes from mammoths that lived anywhere from 3,500 to 1.2 million years ago, along with modern elephant genomes. Putting the genome of an extinct species back together is not as easy as Jurassic Park would make it sound. Ancient DNA is often fragmented, since genetic material degrades over such long stretches of time, though the mammoth has an advantage because cold climates more effectively preserve DNA than hot, humid climates.
Colossal's chief scientist, Beth Shapiro, led a team of researchers who ultimately brought the woolly mouse to life. She previously authored a study on the technology that could possibly save endangered species and possibly resurrect extinct ones.
'Once the genome of an extinct species has been assembled, the next step is to identify the parts of that genome sequence that are responsible for the target phenotype,' she said in the study, published by the British Ecological Society. 'A logical goal might be to change every site in the extant genome where the sequence differs from the extinct genome.'
Altering that many sites in the mouse genome to create something echoing a mammoth is not exactly possible, since mice are, genetically speaking, nowhere close to elephants. What was possible, though, was to identify which genes gave the mammoth certain cold-adaptation traits and to then target seven genes in the mouse genome with eight edits. Turning off several genes that impact hair growth modified the mice's coats to have a wavy, woolly texture, and grow three times as long as those of other mice. This happened as a result of changes to hair follicle development and growth.
The fur of the mice also has a lighter color closer to what has been seen in mummified woolly mammoths. This was accomplished by modifying the gene which regulates the production of melanin, the same dark brown pigment that makes human and animal skin and hair darker depending on how much is produced.
Another modification to the mice was a shortened version of the gene that regulates lipid metabolism and fatty acid absorption. Mammoths also had a shortened version of this gene, which allowed them to store more fat to protect against harsh winters, and the edit also caused this to occur in woolly mice. Next, the researchers want to see how the coats of the mice continue to develop and whether they can survive in extreme cold. They also want to track whether the genetic mutations cause any health issues later on.
While woolly mice might just be mice with a few adaptations for cold climates, they could be the gateway to genetically engineering Asian elephants to come close to the mammoths of the past and, in turn, return certain species to the ecosystems that lost them. Shapiro and her team, throughout their work, have believed that, for those ecosystems, this sort of homecoming would be of great benefit.
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