Australian universities are trying to turn science fiction into reality and promote marsupial conservation by reviving the extinct Australian apex predator Tasmania Tiger.
The tiger, also known as the thylacine or Tasmanian wolf, was once found throughout Australia, but was primarily confined to Tasmania by European colonization in the 18th century, and by colonialists for the next 100 years. It is on the verge of extinction.The last known creature He died in 1936 in captivity.
The study will be made possible by a $ 5 million donation from the Wilson Family Trust to the University of Melbourne, which will enable the institute to set up the Cyrasin Integrated Gene Repair Research (TIGRR) Lab as follows:DisappearanceA rare marsupial carnivore.
“Thanks to this generous funding, we are at a turning point where we can develop technologies that can help potentially revive endangered species and protect other marsupials.” And Professor Andrew Pasque of the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Melbourne Said..
“With this funding, our lab can move forward and focus on three key areas. We will develop techniques for making embryos using marsupial stem cells. Then we will smint the embryos. And successfully transplanted into host surrogate embryos such as Tasmanian devils, “Pask said.
This funding will provide TIGRR Labs with 10 years of research, enabling them to explore one of Pask’s team’s biggest breakthroughs, the sequence of the silassin genome. This gives the team a “basically a complete blueprint on how to build a silassin”.
Pask said the funding would allow the lab to “go forward and focus on three areas.” This includes improving understanding of the flyer’s genome, developing technology to transform marsupial stem cells into embryos, and successfully transplanting them into the uterus.
Although there are concerns about “extinction” while changing habitats and climates, Pask said Tyramine is the most compelling example of extinction.
“Of all the species proposed to be extinct, Tyramine is arguably the most compelling case. This is the perfect environment for reintroducing Tyramine, as Tasmania’s habitat has changed little. It is very likely that reintroduction will be beneficial to the entire ecosystem, “he said.
One such hypothesized benefit is the potential benefit that helps control the spread of Tasmanian devil viral facial tumor disease. This is because the sick demon is no longer preyed on by the apex predator, allowing the infection to spread throughout the population.
The university said the study also had an immediate protective effect by deepening the understanding of marsupials by Australian researchers.
“Our work involves developing methods to create marsupial stem cells to biobank species diversity and protect them from species loss due to events such as Australia’s recent catastrophic wildfires. , Leading to the coveted technological advances in this area. “
“We can develop technologies that have the potential to revive species from extinction and help protect other marsupials that are on the verge of extinction.” Pasque said on March 1st..
However, other studies discussing extinction and conservation genetics argue that genetic methods are simply “conservation biology” and their conservation function is limited.
Report by the American Museum of Natural History 2017 Some conservation researchers claim that “the short-term demographic patterns of endangered and endangered species and populations are much more important.”
Genomics, gene editing, and extinct animal cloning techniques are an integral part of conservation genetics, but “immediate contributions to solving the biodiversity crisis are limited,” the authors argued.
Pask states that their research undertakes “nine important steps to extinction” in animals, including the first and second steps (discovery of marsupials closely related to the mapping of Tyramine’s genome). It was conducted.
The lab is currently in the 3rd and 4th steps, finding all the genes in the selected marsupial stem cells and adding and removing them to create “tyramine cells”. Diversity is also biobanked and added to cells, perhaps by introducing changes.
Steps 5-7 include techniques for transforming stem cells into embryos. The embryo normally implants in the uterus of the host cell. The team is currently nominating Dunnartpsis and Tasmanian devils as host candidates.
Steps 8 and 9 include the birth and care of the cloned Tasmanian tiger.
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Marina Chan is based in Melbourne and focuses on Australian news. Contact her at [email protected]
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Victoria Kelly-Clark is an Australian-based reporter focusing on the national political and geopolitical environment of the Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East and Central Asia.