Researchers from the University of Melbourne, in partnership with an American biotechnology company, Colossal, have a project that aims to reintroduce the Tasmanian tiger to its habitat native. In today's article, we're going to talk about how this could be possible and what method scientists intend to use to accomplish such a feat.
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We know that the proposal seems worthy of fiction, but everything indicates that there is a real possibility.
The project aims to offer a new chance to correct the evil that exists in extinction, so that it can be applied in exceptional circumstances where key species have been lost. Such techniques could also help living marsupials, such as the Tasmanian devil, who are struggling with intensifying bushfires as a result of the climate crisis. Therefore, the idea would help to preserve the planet's biodiversity.
The Tasmanian tiger was a marsupial predator that played a key role in its ecosystem, however it became unpopular among humans, since they blamed them for the losses of livestock and hunted them for a long time, until it reached the point of a real extinction.
Nearly a hundred years after its demise, researchers from the University of Melbourne teamed up with Colossal to start a plan whose ultimate goal is to reintroduce the animal to its native habitat once more turn.
Scientists want to convert stem cells from similar species into those of the Tasmanian tiger. First of all, they will build a detailed genome of the extinct animal and compare it to its closest living relative. It is noteworthy that the complete genome of a lost animal can be recovered from the DNA contained in ancient skeletons, but this is a very challenging process.
Given this, it is clear that some genetic information will be missing, so scientists will not be able to “recreate” exactly the animal, but something very close to a hybrid. Then they'll edit the DNA of the Tasmanian tiger's close relative until it's as close to the parent as possible.
