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MAMMOTH DNA. "The animals are well preserved in the frozen tundra, but probably not consistently enough for their DNA to remain intact and viable for cloning ... fragmented “ancient DNA” has been recovered and reassembled. There is the challenge of the sheer size of the genome ... nearly twice the size of the human genome." http://lnkd.in/dYTym8q View in LinkedIn

MITOCHONDRIAL DNA FROM WOOLY MAMMOTHS. "The Penn State team and Willerslev's group obtained hair from 10 woolly mammoths from a wide arc across northern Siberia. The mtDNA from the hairs showed the existence of two distinct groups of mammoth." http://lnkd.in/dEMV2_N View in LinkedIn

CONSERVATION VS DE-EXTINCTION. "We protect endangered species, conservationists retort (and most of the public agrees), in order to preserve the richest biodiversity we can, to retain creatures that have important ecological roles, or that people love ... All those reasons apply to bringing back extinct species, plus some." http://e360.yale.edu/feature/the_case_for_de-extinction_why_we_should_bring_back_the_woolly_mammoth/2721/ View in LinkedIn

NINE EXTINCT SPECIES GENOMES. "Whole genomes ... have been shotgun-sequenced and reassembled from eight extinct species so far. The woolly mammoth is one of them; early next year the passenger pigeon will be the ninth ... Research ... is now under way. Encouraging answers are not guaranteed." http://e360.yale.edu/feature/the_case_for_de-extinction_why_we_should_bring_back_the_woolly_mammoth/2721/ View in LinkedIn

RARE SPECIES INBREEDING PROBLEM: "They lose fecundity (often due to increasing homozygosity of deleterious genes) ... The new genomic editing techniques should be able to restore heterozygosity pretty easily in living genomes. It may even be possible to revive "extinct alleles" from museum specimens or fossils." http://e360.yale.edu/feature/the_case_for_de-extinction_why_we_should_bring_back_the_woolly_mammoth/2721/ View in LinkedIn

DE-EXTINCTION SPECIES CANDIDATES. "Criteria are emerging for determining which animal species are possible candidates for genetic rescue or genetic assistance. This list encompasses technical considerations that would make de-extinction feasible for these species." This is far from a complete list. http://lnkd.in/dmQ9fPi View in LinkedIn

ANCESTRAL GENE RESTORATION. "Ancient genes can now be reconstructed, expressed and functionally characterized, thanks to improved techniques for inferring and synthesizing ancestral sequences. This approach, (is) known as 'ancestral gene resurrection'." http://www.nature.com/nrg/journal/v5/n5/abs/nrg1324.html View in LinkedIn

ANCIENT PLANT REVIVED. "A team of scientists from the ... Russian Academy of Sciences, has successfully revived a flowering plant from a 32,000-year-old fruit buried in Siberian permafrost." They used tissue culture and clonal micro-propagation techniques. http://lnkd.in/dghi2CG View in LinkedIn

EXTINCT FUNGI REVIVED. "Some fungi remain viable for over 100,000 years in ice. This leads to the possibility that a species can appear to become extinct, but may be capable of reappearing at a later point in time." http://lnkd.in/dhvpdkg View in LinkedIn

RESURRECTION OF A 30,000 YEAR OLD DORMANT VIRUS "Pithovirus sibericum, was resurrected from Siberian permafrost that was, surprisingly, still infective. "This is the first time we've seen a virus that's still infectious after this length of time." http://lnkd.in/dF_rGWthttp:/http://lnkd.in/dzX9u4Z View in LinkedIn