Mammoth cloning unlikely in foreseeable future - scientist
NOVOSIBIRSK. May 30 (Interfax) - Mammoth cloning is suggested every time a new animal is unearthed, but the idea is hardly viable, Deputy Director of the Molecular and Cell Biology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Siberian branch Alexander Grafodatsky told Interfax.
"Mammoth DNA could not have been preserved 100%. We will be able to tell from the preserved fragments to which species the animal belonged and how much kin it was to the Indian or African elephants, which properties it had, but no more than that," he said.
Another problem is the availability of live cells that can be used for somatic cloning, he said.
"Even if the cells are frozen with the best cryo-protectors and stored under ideal conditions, irreversible changes are possible at some point of the long storage and the mammoth was stored under conditions far from ideal," the scientist said.
Storage conditions may be called relatively favorable because they preserved tissues, which gave rise to cloning suggestions, Grafodatsky said. "Cloning is proposed every time a new discovery is made, and I think this will continue to happen," he said.
Grafodatsky did not rule out that the mammoth genome would be reconstructed in the future but said that would take a lot of time and huge investment.
Earlier reports said blood was discovered on the mammoth's bare skin on the second day of treatment of the carcass found on the Little Lyakhovsky Islands of the Novosibirsk Archipelago. The reports also said that tissues were almost perfectly preserved. The tissues had a natural red color of fresh meat. The reason is that the lower part of the mammoth was embedded in almost pure ice and the upper part was found in the middle of the tundra rather than being thawed from the ground on the coast.
Mammoth tissue and blood may help clone the extinct animal, exhibitions department head of the Lazarev Mammoth Museum of the Northeastern Federal University's Research Institute of Applied Ecology of the North Sergei Fyodorov told Interfax.
"True, we are planning to clone the discovered mammoth. Blood and tissue tests will show whether this is possible. The international community is excited. Sensational discoveries are made year after year because of global warming and growing interest in the procurement of mammoth tusk," Fyodorov said.
Head of the Lazarev Mammoth Museum of the Northeastern Federal University's Research Institute of Applied Ecology of the North Semyon Grigoryev told a press conference on Wednesday that tests of mammoth blood and tissue would produce valuable scientific data and either prove or deny the mammoth cloning possibility.
"The Northeastern Federal University and the Sooam Korean Foundation agreed last year to cooperate in the Mammoth Resurrection project. We think that mammoth samples brought to Yakutsk will help make a decision on cloning," Grigoryev said.