Cloning the Mammoth: A Complicated Task or Just a Dream?

Abstract

Recently there has been growing interest in applying the most advanced embryological tools, particularly cloning, to bring extinct species back to life, with a particular focus on the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius). Mammoth's bodies found in the permafrost are relatively well preserved, with identifiable nuclei in their tissues. The purpose of this chapter is to review the literature published on the topic, and to present the strategies potentially suitable for a mammoth cloning project, with a frank assessment of their feasibility and the ethical issues involved.

Perspectives from the Avian Phylogenomics Project: Questions that Can Be Answered with Sequencing All Genomes of a Vertebrate Class

“…Another benefit is that, for endangered or near-extinct species, one can conduct controlled breeding programs to increase genetic diversity, which leads to greater species survival (64,75). Finally, theoretically, if all extant species are sequenced now, and one or more species go extinct after the genome is sequenced, representative genomes could be used for deextinction projects when such technology becomes feasible in the future (75,76).…”

Technical, Biological and Molecular Aspects of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer – A Review

“…Meanwhile, in some research into somatic cloning, well-preserved tissues or cells have been used, suggesting that these materials cryopreserved postmortem without cryoprotectant can allow resurrection of the postmortem animal by SCNT (Wakayama et al, 2008;Hoshino et al, 2009;Kato et al, 2009). Indeed, an essential requirement for cloning is the availability of soft or alternatively well-preserved tissue with identifiable nuclei (Kato et al, 2009;Loi et al, 2014). Additionally, some results clearly indicate that even the viability of donor cells might not be a prerequisite for production of SCNT cloned embryos/animals but only their intact nuclear materials (DNA), which can serve as the basis of a nucleus formation.…”

“…Given that the structure should also allow the transfer of the chromosomes/centriole into an egg, a synthetic lipid monolayer appears to be the most appropriated solution. Artificial membranes have been a reality for many years, and the state of the art is particularly advanced thanks to recent development in the production of artificial cells (Zagnoni, 2012;Loi et al, 2014). In theory, it is an interesting approach and vision of cloning, however, we cannot foresee how this "artificial" material could be involved in remodeling, epigenetic and transcriptional machinery in the oocyte.…”

“…However, this methodology results in the production of nuclear-cytoplasmic hybrids (Loi et al, 2011). The method proposed by Loi et al (2014), would be the transfer of nuclei recovered by the Kato group into Asian elephant oocytes but unfortunately, until now, the availability of elephant oocytes is severely limited.…”

Mammoth 2.0: will genome engineering resurrect extinct species?

“…What happens after an extinct genome is resurrected is less clear. For mammoths, Asian elephants may be a suitable maternal host, but cloning by nuclear transfer has not yet been achieved for elephants [ 12 ]. For other species, cloning is less likely to be successful.…”