Scientists to bring back extinct woolly mammoths back to life within two years using CRISPR technique

scientists are trying to bring back the extinct woolly mammoths back to life by creating a mammoth-elephant hybrid in an artificial womb. They claim that within two years this would be a reality.

The woolly mammoth roamed across roamed across Europe, Asia, Africa and North America during the last Ice Age and vanished some 4,500 years ago.The climate changes and hunting by humans have contributed to their extinction.

How will scientists revive wholly mammoth?

-Scientists would extract the DNA from frozen carcasses of the mammoth that preserved in the permafrost

-They then will use the gene editing techniques like CRISPR/Cas9 that allow the precise exertion and insertion of DNA from the frozen specimens in the genome of Asian elephants 

-They chose Asian elephants as it is close relative to the mammoth.

-The cells would carry genes for mammoth features like shaggy long hair, thick layers of fat, and blood that facilitate the mammoth to survive in sub-zero conditions.

-The project was started in 2015 and scientists have increased the number of edits wherein spliced Mammoth DNA into elephant genome from 15-45 

-DNA will be spliced into skin cells of Asian elephants and reprogrammed to become stem cells.

-Nuclei from the reprogrammed cells will be placed in the egg cells from Asian elephant and stimulate to turn into embryos

-Embryos will then allowed to grow into artificial embryos and it would be more like an elephant with a number of mammoth traits.

Also Read: Researchers discover large pool of greenhouse gases under the US that could cause environmental disasters on the scale of nuclear warfare

These mammoths would prevent tundra permafrost from melting and releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. In the summer they cut down the trees and allow the grass to grow and thereby play a role in the maintenance of temperatures in Siberia

source