An extinct ‘doglike carnivorous marsupial’ has become the center
of attention in Australia because of its genes. Scientists plan to
clone the Tasmanian Tiger, though it’s been extinct for 65 years,
and reintroduce it into the wild.
Luba Vangelova of the Environmental News Network
writes that the scientists at the Australian Museum in Sydney hope
to use a 134-year-old tiger pup for cloning material, because
unlike all its preserved colleagues, this one sits in alcohol
instead of formalin and consequently has intact genetic
material.
In April the head of evolutionary biology, Don Colgan, helped
extract morsels of DNA from the tiger. He said that the minute
amount they now have will provide them with at least hundreds of
copies of the animal’s genome.
‘The Australian Museum scientists admit their odds of successfully
cloning the tiger are slim,’ writes Vangelova. ‘But they hope the
effort will at least pave the way for future initiatives and
therefore justify its cost, expected to run into the tens of
millions of dollars.’ — Sara BuckwitzGo there>>
