Russians want to revive a species from the Pleistocene. The remains of a foal from 40,000 years ago will help. years

Russian scientists, in cooperation with cloning experts from South Korea, intend to bring back to life a species recently found in the permafrost a perfectly preserved foal from 40,000 years ago. years. As the researchers announce, this is expected to be the first step in restoring the population of the woolly mammoth.

A few weeks ago, the astonishingly well-preserved body of an ancient foal was retrieved from the Batagaika crater located in Siberia. Siberian researchers have determined that the remains belonged to a species of Equus lenensis that became extinct in the Pleistocene, whichory lived in the region about 30,000 to 40,000 years ago.

The foal was no more than a month old at the time of its death. The permafrost has preserved the foal’s remains so well that skora, hooves, tail and even tiny hairs in the animal’s nostrils and wokohoofbeats are still visible. Even its internal organs have been preserved. We wrote more about this in the text: perfectly preserved remains of a foal from 40,000 years ago. years old

According to „The Siberian Times”, a Russian teamoł scientistow joined forces with cloning specialists from South Korea to undertake probę cloning of a foal. Hwang Woo Suk, a former professor at Seoul National University, ktory leads Korean researchers, he was a highly regarded expert in the field of comostem cells. In 2005, he was accused of falsifying the resultoin its research on the transfer of the nucleus of comosomatic rki – The technique underpinning cloning, which he admitted to by the way. It has also been accused of committing numerous ethical violations in the purchase of human comoegg rec, ktore used for its study. The sum of his sinow led him behind bars, where he spent two years.

After the scandal, Hwang Woo Suk withdrew from academic work in favor of private research. In 2012, he founded the Soam Biotech Research Foundation – A company offering commercial cloning of pets, primarily dogsow and catow. According to company officials, customersothere is no shortage of. And those must be wealthy, as it costs 100,000 to clone a pet. dollarow.

Currently residing in Yakutsk, Hwang admitted in an interview with the „The Siberian Times”, That „ongoing wspolna struggle to find the comorki suitable for possible foal cloning”. – If we are able to retrieve the genetic material, we will do our best to clone this unique animal. We are trying to recreate the original culture with this foal found a few weeks ago. If we succeed, it will be a great promise for humans when it comes to cloning – said a Korean researcher.

– If we find the right comorka, we will be able to create as many embryosow as much as we will – added Hwang. But finding the comorki in pristine condition after a long freeze will be very difficult. Ice crystals formed during the freezing process destroy the comorki. However, as Hwang admitted to one of the scientists employed at the Soam Biotech Research Foundationcow succeeded in isolating a clonable comorka made from the tissue of a dead dog, ktorego body had been in the freezer for some time. After that, the cloning went smoothly.

When the teamoł will find a suitable comorka, the cloning procedure will begin. Nuclei containing genetic material will be transferred to empty chambersorek eggs taken from a related animal. In this case to a living species of wild horse. Then using signal molecules, the resultingob comorka will be induced to behave like an embryo. Once this step is achieved, the embryos can be implanted in a surrogate mother.

– If we can clone the ancient horse, it will be the first step to cloning the mammoth. This will help us refine the technology – said Hwang.

Researchers not involved in the analysis of the remainsoin foal and proto cloning express doubts about whether it will be possible to successfully clone an extinct species of horse. – Cloning is only possible if the DNA of the original animal is intact, and most – if not all – of the DNA in proice age bk is usually degraded – said in an interview with „Live Science” Love Dalén, professor of evolutionary genetics at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm.

Sourceobackground: the Siberian Times, Live Science, fot. Michil Yakovlev/SVFU/Siberian Times