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DE-EXTINCTION. "Cloning is ... an option for bringing extinct species back. Proponents include author Stewart Brand, and ... include the Passenger Pigeon and the woolly mammoth. De-extinction efforts are now underway to revive the species by extracting DNA fragments from preserved specimens, and later, using Band-tailed Pigeons as surrogate parents." http://lnkd.in/dFz2nP7http://lnkd.in/dWxJ-JT View in LinkedIn

BIOLOGICAL DATABASES may be all that is needed for archiving purposes. The raw DNA sequence can be used to reconstruct a simple organism such as a virus. More complex organisms are possible when there is a near living relative, according to Harvard's George Church, who is keen to resurrect extinct species from DNA samples. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_biological_databases View in LinkedIn

DE-EXTINCTION OPTIONS, "is to clone using cells from cryopreserved tissue of a recently extinct animal to generate viable eggs that can then be implanted in a closely related surrogate mother. Another is ... 'genome editing' by hybridising a living species with an extinct species ... The technique could (use) ancient DNA from museum specimens and fossils." http://lnkd.in/dF5RhVX View in LinkedIn

RESURRECTION OF FUNCTIONAL TASMANIAN TIGER DNA was achieved in transgenic mice, showing the revival of non coding DNA, after recovery of a sample from a museum specimen. "While other studies have examined extinct coding DNA function in vitro, this is the first example of the restoration of extinct non-coding DNA and examination of its function in vivo." http://lnkd.in/dCgNDk5 View in LinkedIn

LIST OF 23 SPECIES OF CLONED ANIMALS. "One significant aspect of this list is documenting the transition from early concerns that animal cloning procedures might be limited to a few species, that cloned animals might be physiologically abnormal, or cloning might lack utility for society." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_animals_that_have_been_cloned View in LinkedIn

HEALTHY CLONED MICE AFTER 16 YEARS AT −20°C. "As all of the cells were ruptured after thawing, we used a modified cloning method and examined nuclei from several organs for use in nuclear transfer attempts. Thus, nuclear transfer techniques could be used to “resurrect” animals ... without any cryopreservation." http://www.pnas.org/content/105/45/17318.short View in LinkedIn

WHAT IS CLONING? Dolly the sheep was duplicated by cloning. "Clones are organisms that are exact genetic copies. Every single bit of their DNA is identical. Clones can happen naturally—identical twins are just one of many examples. Or they can be made in the lab." A useful cloning primer. http://lnkd.in/dbFGugN View in LinkedIn

CHURCH ON DE-EXTINCTION. "DNA can now be precisely spliced into and out of a complete genome. Find the genes that make a mammoth different from an elephant ... splice it in and, voila, a new kind of mammoth. “We can make a hybrid elephant with the best features of modern elephants and mammoths." http://lnkd.in/dYTym8q View in LinkedIn

ANCIENT DNA CONTAMINATION RISK. "Because aDNA is often damaged and found in low concentrations, it is crucial that lab work ... is conducted in sterile conditions (and) ...to test whether they are being contaminated by modern DNA ... aDNA sequence data need to pass basic authenticity tests: they must make evolutionary and biochemical sense, and be reproducible." http://lnkd.in/dfDcYEx View in LinkedIn

HOW LONG CAN ANCIENT DNA SURVIVE? "In theory, retrievable aDNA could survive for up to 1 million years under ideal conditions. In practice, however, the oldest recovered aDNA is from the early Middle Pleistocene epoch ... (up to ~780,000 years old) and from sediment that originated below the Greenland ice sheet (up to ~800,000 years old)." http://lnkd.in/dfDcYEx View in LinkedIn