History of cloning and de-extinction
Scientists are planning to “de-extinct” 24 species, including the Dodo Bird, Wooly Mammoth, and Tasmanian Tiger. Thanks to "biodiversity banks", which hold genetic material of extinct and endangered species, scientists were able to bring back an extinct type of goat called the Pyrenean Ibex for ten minutes in 2003, before it died of respiratory failure. That was the first time a previously extinct species was brought out of extinction. Another attempt was made, this time impregnating a cow with an endangered type of cow called the Gaur, and was successfully birthed, before dying two days later. There have also been several attempts at cloning, and the first successful clone was Dolly the sheep in 1996. Dolly was euthanized at six because of severe arthritis and advanced lung cancer, neither of which were confirmed to be connected with the fact that she was a clone. This technology is being used currently in an attempt to resurrect extinct species. If we are successful in the resurrection of extinct species, this will be a huge breakthrough. Animals brought out of extinction could hold cures for many human ailments. The Gastric Brooding Frog, for example, had special stomach qualities that are thought to help people with ulcers. If we are successful of bringing them out of extinction, they could be a key in bettering treatment for gastric problems in people.
How to make a copy of an organism
There are two popular ways of making copies of organisms: Cloning and cell reprogramming, or iPS. For example, if you were using the cloning method to clone a dog, you have to extract a sample of its DNA and insert it into an egg cell from another dog. The egg cell’s previous nucleus would have to be removed so the cell could read the newly inserted DNA. Once the cell makes enough copies of itself, it is moved into a surrogate mother. In iPS, a cell which has the power to differentiate between different biological layers is taken, forced to express certain genes, which can be used to create new embryo cells, and then moved to a surrogate mother to grow. These methods are now being used to try to reverse the extinction of multiple species. By using DNA of animals stored in "biodiversity banks" such as the Frozen Zoo, scientists can attempt to de-extinct species using these methods of copying animals to bring the species back to life. By finding a near-match for an extinct species, you can insert an extinct animal's DNA into a cell of a species that is close enough related to it, you can try to de-extinct species. If, for example, you wanted to bring back the Pyrenean Ibex, you would first need to find an animal that is closely related to it, such as a goat. You would then have to get the DNA of the Pyrenean Ibex and insert it into a cell of a goat, and take out the goat DNA in a process called enucleation, which is a process of removing the nucleus of a cell.
The Frozen Zoo
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The Frozen Zoo started collecting samples in 1976. Since then, it has collected over 1,00 species of animals, and has “10,000 genomes of vertebrate species”. The majority of the Frozen Zoo contains mammals, but fish, reptiles, birds, and even amphibians are stored there. In the future, the Frozen Zoo can and will be a key factor in aiding the de-extinction of species, as well as taking animals off of the endangered list.
Statistics
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The graph above is as accurate as possible, but in years that had shown no new extinct information have been written as "0". Human population is written in billions, ie 6.1=6,100,000,000.
- The chances of a successful clone is 0.3% to 1%. This is the same as 970 to 999 failures for every 1,000 tries.
- More than 90% of cloning experiments end up in failure.
- When scientists analyzed 10,00 liver and placenta cells of cloned mice, they found that about 4% of the genes had problems functioning.
- About 30% of clones born have “large offspring syndrome” and other serious defects.
- The NIH (National Institutes of Health) have donated 3-5% of their annual Human Genome project budget to studying ethical matters of this cause.