Clearly I Should Have Paid More Attention in French Class
November 25, 2008 at 8:25 am Tina Hay 1 comment
I love it when readers e-mail me with story ideas from all over. We get some great ideas that way. The e-mail that came the other day from an alumnus in Belgium, however, was a bit of a challenge.
The subject line of the e-mail read “Prof. Schuster, P.S.U., and the mammoth’s revival.” And I was OK with the first sentence of the e-mail itself: “From the important French newspaper Le Monde, Nov. 22, 2008.” But it went downhill from there. Here’s the rest of the e-mail:
Ressusciter le mammouth laineux, un rêve de généticien
Certes, il n’est pas question, comme l’avait imaginé Crichton, de créer un zoo de dinosaures engendrés à partir d’ADN prélevé dans des moustiques ayant sucé le sang des sauriens avant d’être piégés dans de l’ambre. Mais l’idée générale est la même : séquencer le génome de plusieurs mammouths retrouvés dans le pergélisol ; en tirer un génome de synthèse ; introduire ces chromosomes dans un noyau de cellule d’éléphant ; implanter cet embryon dans une éléphante porteuse ; voir ce qui en sort.
“Aucune de ces étapes n’est actuellement possible”, convient Henry Nicholls, qui, dans Nature, détaille chacune d’elles. Au Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, Pascal Tassy estime que le clonage de mammouth est une vue de l’esprit, “même si l’enjeu technologique est bien circonscrit”. Mais il reconnaît que la marche de la science peut surprendre parfois les spécialistes eux-mêmes : “J’avais dit qu’on ne pourrait pas séquencer l’ADN mitochondrial (non nucléaire) du mammouth, avant d’être démenti”, note-t-il.
Mais trêve de science-fiction : pour l’heure, l’équipe de Stephan Schuster (Pennsylvania State University) est parvenue à séquencer 3,3 milliards de paires de base d’ADN de Mammuthus primigenius, soit 70 % environ du génome du mammouth laineux. La comparaison avec l’éléphant moderne suggère que diverses espèces de mammouth ont pu diverger il y a environ 1,5 à 2 millions d’années. “Ces résultats paraissent moins “sexy” que la poursuite du clone de mammouth, commente M. Tassy. Mais la biologie moléculaire renouvelle complètement notre vision de l’évolution des pachydermes.”
Hey, I at least saw three words I recognized: Pennsylvania State University.
But in all seriousness, Penn State is getting some very cool international attention for this research, which was done by a team led by Stephan Schuster and Webb Miller of the Eberly College of Science. The researchers were able to sequence the DNA of an extinct animal—the wooly mammoth. Here is just one of the many stories that have appeared in the media about their work and its possible implications.
And by all means keep those story tips coming—in whatever language works for you!
Tina Hay, editor
Entry filed under: Eberly College of Science, The Penn Stater magazine. Tags: Belgium, DNA, Le Monde, Stephan Schuster, Webb Miller, wooly mammoth.
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1. Vince Verbeke | November 26, 2008 at 3:33 pm
This is the upside to Google Translate, http://translate.google.com/
Resurrecting the woolly mammoth, a geneticist dream
Admittedly, there is no question, as had been imagined Crichton, create a zoo of dinosaurs created from DNA taken from mosquitoes that have sucked the blood of lizards before being trapped in amber. But the general idea is the same: sequence the genome of several mammoths found in permafrost; draw a genome synthesis; introduce these chromosomes in a cell nuclear elephant; implant that embryo in an elephant carrier see what leaves.
“None of these steps is now possible,” agrees Henry Nicholls, who, in Nature, detailing each. At the National Museum of Natural History, Pascal Tassy believes that cloning is a mammoth view of the mind, “even though the technological challenge is well defined.” But he acknowledged that the march of science can sometimes surprise the experts themselves: “I said we could not sequenced mitochondrial DNA (non-nuclear) of mammoth, before being denied,” notes he said.
But enough of science fiction for now, the team of Stephan Schuster (Pennsylvania State University) reached sequenced 3.3 billion base pairs of DNA Mammuthus primigenius, or 70% of the genome of the mammoth woolly. The comparison with the modern elephant suggests that various species of mammoth could differ there are about 1.5 to 2 million years. “These results seem less” sexy “that the continuation of clone mammoths, says Tassy. But molecular biology completely renew our vision of the evolution of pachyderms.”