breaking : Scientists rebuild part of mammoth’s genome

AFP
Sunday, December 18, 2005 21:42 IST

PARIS: In a world first, German scientists say they have reconstructed a key sequence in the genome of the woolly mammoth, enabling them to show that the extinct beast’s closest modern relative is the Asian elephant.

Reporting in Nature researchers say they devised a new technique for the feat, teasing out DNA from just 200 milligrams of bone found at a mammoths’ graveyard in the Siberian permafrost.

Their technique, called multiplex polymerase chain reaction, copied 46 chunks of sequence, which were rearranged to give a picture of the creature’s mitochondrial DNA.

The mitochondria are an internal part of a cell that is the cell’s power supply. Mitochondrial DNA is handed down through the maternal line, and is a relatively stable genetic sequence — it changes little from generation to generation, and at a measurable rhythm.

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http://dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1002877&CatID=5

Mother, make me a mammoth.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4533485.stm

Efforts are under way to restore part of Siberia to the way it was more than 10,000 years ago, before the end of the last ice age.
The "Pleistocene Park" experiment will try to turn the wet, boggy tundra back to the dry grasslands that once were home to large herds of stampeding mammals.

These creatures included bison, horses, reindeer, musk-oxen, elk, saiga, and yaks and even woolly rhinos and mammoths. There were top predators, too, such as cave lions and wolves.

It is hoped that by re-introducing some of the still-surviving species, grazing will begin again and restore the landscape

I bet they could make a reasonable fascimile by putting it with elephant DNA.

With the changing climate, Siberia may become a more hospitable environment.

the biggest asshole in the world.