It’s been decades since Australia’s thylacine, known as the Tasmanian tiger, was declared extinct and scientists say they’ve made a breakthrough as they research ways to bring back the carnivore.
Efforts to bring back the Tasmanian tiger The preservation of a complete Tasmanian tiger head meant that scientists could study RNA samples from several important tissue areas, including the tongue, nasal cavity, brain and eye.
Efforts aiding the revival of the Tasmanian tiger are not confined to Australia.
Despite the Tasmanian tiger moniker, the carnivores were marsupials, like kangaroos, koalas and Tasmanian devils.
By the mid-1930s, the Tasmanian tiger population had dwindled to a single thylacine at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, Tasmania’s capital.
The Tasmanian tiger, an Australian thylacine, was declared extinct decades ago, but scientists believe they’ve made progress in their quest to bring the carnivore back.
Approximately 99.9 percent of the reconstructed thylacine genome, according to a press release from Colossal Biosciences on Thursday, is complete. The remaining 45 gaps will be filled in over the next few months with other sequencing. One preserved head, 110 years old, skinned and stored in ethanol, yielded long RNA molecules that the company also isolated.
Director of the UCSC Paleogenomics Lab, where the samples were processed, and chief science officer at Colossal, Beth Shapiro, said, “The thylacine samples used for our new reference genome are among the best preserved ancient specimens my team has worked with.”. It’s uncommon to have a sample that lets you go so far in using antiquated DNA techniques. “.
The Tasmanian tiger’s recovery efforts.
Researchers were able to examine RNA samples from several significant tissue regions, such as the tongue, nasal cavity, brain, and eye, thanks to the preservation of a whole Tasmanian tiger head. According to Andrew Park, a member of Colossal’s Scientific Advisory Board and a researcher at the University of Melbourne’s TIGRR Lab, it will enable researchers to ascertain what a thylacine could taste and smell, as well as what kind of vision it had and how its brain functioned.
“With every day that passes, we’re one step closer to reintroducing the thylacine into the ecosystem, which has significant benefits for conservation as well,” stated Pask.
In an interview with 60 Minutes earlier this year, Pask stated that in an attempt to restore the Tasmanian tiger, scientists were collaborating with its nearest surviving relative, a tiny marsupial known as the fat-tailed dunnart.
Pask remarked, “But despite its extreme small size, that little dunnart is a fierce carnivore.”. And being able to perform all of this editing in it is a great substitute for us. “. .
According to Pask, scientists have been comparing the DNA of thylacines and dunnarts. After that, converting a fat-tailed dunnart cell into a thylacine cell just requires accessing and modifying the DNA.
On Thursday, Colossal Biosciences announced that it had successfully inserted over 300 distinct genetic modifications into a dunnart cell, thereby creating “the most edited animal cell to date.”. ****.
“From creative methods to identify the genomic regions driving evolution to cutting-edge approaches to ascertain gene function, we are really pushing forward the frontier of de-extinction technologies,” stated Pask. With the most complete genome resources available and the most knowledgeable experiments available to ascertain function, we are in the best position ever to rebuild this species. “.
An international community is involved in efforts to support the comeback of the Tasmanian tiger. One hundred and thirty-year-old Tasmanian tigers kept at room temperature in Sweden’s Museum of Natural History were the subject of an RNA recovery and sequencing project last year.
How the last Tasmanian tigers went extinct.
For millennia, Tasmania was home to thylacines. Caters for marsupials such as kangaroos, koalas, and Tasmanian devils were the carnivores, despite the name Tasmanian tiger.
As previously reported by 60 Minutes, the local government offered bounties to hunters who brought in carcasses of Tasmanian tigers in the late 1800s because the animals had been consuming farmers’ sheep. There was only one thylacine left in the Tasmanian capital of Hobart’s Beaumaris Zoo by the middle of the 1930s, when the species was extinct. In 1936, it passed away there.
