It’s a major scientific leap – or at least the hop.
Australian researchers said Thursday it was the first time it produced the first kangaroo embryos through intravitro fertilization, a breakthrough that helped save endangered species from extinction.
Australia is not a shortage of kangaroos – bouncing creatures are generally eaten there – but they are from a group of mammalian marsupials that have been mostly discovered in the country and have lost many species due to extinction.
Prime Minister Andres Gambini, a lecturer at the University of Queensland, said that using kangaroo eggs and sperm by researchers could help support the conservation of these marsupials.
“Our team has built up years of experience dealing with livestock reproductive techniques, such as livestock and horses,” Gambini told NBC News via email. “Adapting these techniques to the unique biology of kangaroos allowed us to create embryos in our lab for the first time.”
This study will help scientists learn more about how marsupial embryos grow because they breed differently than other mammals.
“Kangaroos have a very short pregnancy and embryos can enter suspended animations for several months,” Gambini said. “Our success at IVF helps us to better understand the early stages of these developments.”
Australia is one of the world’s most biological countries, but has the highest rate of mammal extinction. Australia’s Invasive Species Council says that since the European settlement, at least 33 mammal species have been extinct, with many of their marsupials extinct.
Due to its historically high extinction rate, the Australian government announced its 10 years in 2022. “Zero Extinction” plan To protect those under threat, we reserve at least 30% of the country’s land mass for conservation.
“If we continue to do what we do, more plants and animals will be extinct,” Australia’s Environment Minister Tanya Privelesek said in the report. “Even koalas are currently at risk on Australia’s east coast.”
Currently, according to 2023, more than 2,200 species in the country are classified as extinct. Report Australian nonprofit foundation.
“Laws intended to protect the nature of Australia have failed,” the report states, with the major conservation policies in countries that existed “are barely monitored and rarely enforced, and businesses are able to naturally qualify. It’s full of loopholes that allow you to destroy it.”
Kangaroos are not at risk, but researchers at the University of Queensland have said that their latest breakthroughs include koalas, Tasmanian demons and other endangered species on the continent, including the hairy nose wombats in the north I hope it will help maintain marsupial species.
“This study provides new tools to maintain the genetic material of endangered species,” Gambini said. “By creating and freezing embryos, we can protect the unique genes of these animals.”
This is not the first time IVF has been used as a tool to preserve endangered species.
Last year, Italian scientists achieved the world’s first IVF rhino pregnancy, offering hope to save Kenya’s northern white rhinoceros – two of which remain on Earth from extinction. They did so by transferring lab-created rhinoembryos to surrogate mothers.
Still, Gambini said the latest IVF breakthrough is just one step on the long road to a more comprehensive solution.
“There’s a lot of unknowns because we’re the first and there’s still so much to discover,” he says, and when combined with other strategies, “make a real difference in some kind of risky kind of thing.” “You can do that.”
Source: www.nbcnews.com
