Could Woolly Mammoths Actually Make a Comeback?

A company founded to bring back extinct animals has announced that it has made significant progress in its goal of bringing back the woolly mammoth. On March 6, Colossal announced that its team had succeeded in converting normal elephant cells into stem cells, which could lead to the creation of mammoth-like creatures. “This is an important step,” said the company's CEO. ben ramsaid in a press release. Here's what you need to know:

Is it really possible to bring the woolly mammoth back from extinction?

No, it's not, and it never will be. The genomes of several frozen mammoths have been sequenced, but there are many gaps. But it should be possible to edit the genome of a living elephant to make it look more like a mammoth. Colossal acknowledges on its website that the elephant it plans to create is a “cold-hardy elephant,” but says the animal “has all the key biological characteristics of a woolly mammoth.”

Will these edited elephants look like mammoths?

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Colossal says even the sounds of mammoths are similar, but it's unclear how humans know what a mammoth sounds like. There will be at least one major difference when it comes to their appearance.The majority do not have tusks to avoid ivory poaching, says Colossal co-founder George Church. Species with tusks can only be kept in highly supervised areas, he said.

Colossal also plans to make the mammoth-like elephants resistant to a deadly disease caused by the elephant endothelial-tropic herpesvirus.

Why does Colossal need to create elephant stem cells?

The company edits the genome of elephant cells to make them more similar to mammoths. But creating a living mammoth-like elephant requires producing embryos containing edited genomes. In theory, one way to do this would be to turn gene-edited elephant cells into so-called induced pluripotent stem cells, which then turn into egg and sperm cells.

What are induced pluripotent stem cells?

Pluripotent stem cells can transform into any cell in the body, including eggs and sperm. They occur naturally in embryos, but can also be made from adult cells by adding certain proteins, and are therefore “induced.” These have been produced in many animal species, but until now no one had succeeded in inducing pluripotency in elephant cells.

Why is it so difficult to induce elephant cells to become pluripotent?

At least in part, this is probably because these larger, longer-lived animals require better anti-cancer mechanisms, which means tighter control over stem cell proliferation.

How did Colossal manage it?

Specifically, they genetically engineered Asian elephant cells to permanently produce key proteins. Still, it took two months to turn the cells into induced pluripotent stem cells. “We want to make the process more efficient and faster, and I think this is a great start,” he says. Eona Hisori At Colossal. The DNA that encodes important proteins can be easily removed, she says.

So does Colossal turn these induced pluripotent stem cells into eggs and sperm?

That's the plan, but it could take years. Converting induced pluripotent stem cells into eggs and sperm is not easy. “This is primarily done in two species: mice and humans,” Church says. “And neither is perfect.”

Does that mean it could be decades before a mammoth-like elephant is produced?

Colossal claims the first “mammoth” will be born by 2028. Heisoli said the researchers aim to make just 50 to 100 gene edits in elephant cells, and that it is possible. But producing embryos in time will almost certainly require implanting the edited genome into an elephant egg using the same cloning technique used to create Dolly the sheep. An elephant's gestation period is her two years, so these embryos need to be created and implanted by her around the end of 2026.

Does cloning edited cells work?

Although it is possible, typically only a small percentage of cloned embryos develop into healthy animals. “There are always going to be attempts that fail. How many elephants should we experimentally impregnate?” asks a stem cell expert. Dusko Ilic At King&#39s College London. “Just because we have the ability to do something new doesn’t mean we should pursue it without careful consideration of the ethical implications and consequences.”

Where does this mammoth-like elephant live? Given Russia's claims about the war in Ukraine and the United States' biological weapons, isn't it highly unlikely that Russia would allow genetically reborn mammoths to be released into Siberia?

“Keep in mind that mammoths were everywhere in the Arctic, not just Siberia,” Hisori says. Alaska and Canada are also possibilities, she said, and Colossal already has “very fruitful collaborations” with government agencies, local governments and First Nations.

Why is Colossal aiming to revive the mammoth?

The company claims that rewilding the arctic regions where mammoths live will reduce permafrost thaw and reduce climate change by locking up carbon in the form of frozen organic matter. “The Arctic is a perfect place to sequester carbon because it freezes more layers of topsoil every year,” Church says. “And herbivores poop on it.”

Could mammoth-like creatures really help limit further warming in the Arctic?

That hasn’t been established yet, but there is some possibility. One small study suggests that large herbivores can lower permafrost temperatures By flattening and insulating the snow that accumulates in winter. Also, if edited elephants limit forest expansion, dark trees in previously flat, snow-covered areas could absorb more sunlight, which could have a warming effect. That would be helpful too. But it will take thousands of people to make a big impact.

Does that mean Colossal aims to have tens of thousands of these creatures roaming the North Pole?

Yes, that’s the purpose. Based on the increase in elephant population under favorable conditions, new scientist It is estimated that breeding so many mammoth-like elephants from a small initial population could take more than a century.

But Church says Colossal is developing an artificial womb that circumvents normal limitations. “So, in principle, we can do this at any scale the world wants and needs. If they don’t need it, we won’t scale up,” he says. .