Some of the last known Tasmanian Tigers
My Dr Midas books often include endangered or extinct animal characters, so I was very interested to hear about a new DNA experiment involving the Tasmanian Tiger. I wish there was a way to bring this and other animals back to life - with a time machine perhaps (lol) - but at least this new study gives an insight into their make-up.
Australian scientists have taken genetic material from a 100-year-old museum specimen and put it into a mouse embryo to see how it works.
Dr Andrew Pask, of the Department of Zoology, said it was the first time that DNA from an extinct species had been used to carry out a function in a living organism.
"As more and more species of animals become extinct, we are continuing to lose critical knowledge of gene function and its potential," he said. "This research was developed to examine extinct gene function in a whole organism."
The Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine) was hunted to extinction in the wild at the start of the last century with the last known Hobart Zoo in 1936, but several museums around the world still hold tissue samples preserved in alcohol.
The University of Melbourne team extracted DNA from some of these specimens, and injected a gene involved in cartilage formation into developing mouse embryos. Blue dye then showed were the DNA was working.
Prof Rawson, is involved in the Frozen Ark, a global project to preserve genetic information from threatened species. Some scientists hope mammoths will be next to be examined.
Prof Rawson said: "To go back to animals and plants that went extinct thousands of years ago, there is less chance to get a sizeable portion of DNA to unravel it," he explained. "But modern techniques are developing all the time - we can now get information from material we once thought was impossible."
Guess what I'm reading now
Reading about the Tasmanian Tiger has also prompted me to read a book that's been on my shelf a while. 'Stripes of the Sidestep Wolf' by Australian Sonya Hartnett. The story follows Satchel O'Rye and Chelsea Piper, who find their own survival becomes inextricably intwined with that of an animal they believe to be the last-ever Tasmanian Tiger.
Sonya was the Christopher Paolini (teenage author of Eragon) of her day, she wrote her first book, Trouble All the Way, at thirteen and it was published when she was just fifteen. She has written a number of books for young adults since then and has won many awards including the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.
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