Scientists have taken a gene from an extinct creature, the Tasmanian tiger, and made it work in a mouse embryo.
The pioneering work shows how researchers can investigate the biology of an extinct species by putting its genes in a living organism.
They say that the prospect of cloning the tiger, the largest known carnivorous marsupial of modern times, remains distant.
The last known Tasmanian tiger died in captivity in Hobart Zoo in 1936 after being hunted to extinction in the wild in the early 1900s.
Fortunately, young and adult tissues were preserved in alcohol in several museum collections.
Using century-old specimens from Museum Victoria in Melbourne, researchers from the University of Melbourne and the University of Texas extracted a gene from the creature, isolated DNA, and inserted it into mouse embryos.
The DNA showed a biological function in the developing mouse cartilage, which will later form the bone.
“This is the first time that DNA from an extinct species has been used to induce a functional response in another living organism,” said Dr Andrew Pask at the University of Melbourne, who led the research.
source:www.telegraph.co.uk
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