[HN Gopher] An endangered species in the U.S. has been cloned fo...
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An endangered species in the U.S. has been cloned for the first
time
Author : jacquesm
Score : 37 points
Date : 2021-02-22 11:25 UTC (11 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.fox5ny.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.fox5ny.com)
| patall wrote:
| This article does not cover it but Elisabeth Ann is not 100%
| black-footed ferret as the mitochondrial DNA comes from a
| domestic ferret (via the egg cell the black-footed ferret cell
| nucleus was cloned into). This means that this individual will
| breed with a normal black-footed ferret male and only the male
| progeny of those (that still has those normal ferret
| mitochondria) will be crossed back into the real black-footed
| ferret population.
| 1-6 wrote:
| It's important to clone cute animals. That's how you do a social
| media campaign. No one wants to see endangered ugly bats
| (although they're probably important for some purpose).
| bpodgursky wrote:
| Developing this technology on "cute" species will make it
| cheaper and easier (both technically and politically) to
| perform on ugly or ignored species. Gotta start somewhere.
| fasteddie31003 wrote:
| Definitely a cuteness bias here.
| xkeysc0re wrote:
| Let's face it: we live in a Lookist society. This isn't talked
| about nearly as much as it should be
| ravi-delia wrote:
| Considering the huge and absolutely idiotic tide of resistance
| to any sort of cloning progress that comes up with every
| headline like this, the first success of this kind probably
| should be of a cute ferret that's easy to defend.
| EricE wrote:
| One step closer to Jurassic Park!
| kypro wrote:
| Not quite Jurassic Park, but I something I really hope to see
| in my life time is a Woolly mammoth.
| bogidon wrote:
| In case anyone else is wondering who the surrogate mother was, it
| was a domestic ferret:
|
| > This work builds upon recent advancements in cloning processes
| developed by ViaGen Pets & Equine, which successfully created
| embryos from the frozen cell line and implanted them into a
| domestic ferret surrogate.
|
| More informative article: https://www.fws.gov/mountain-
| prairie/pressrel/2021/02182021-...
| [deleted]
| edhelas wrote:
| Cool story, but we destroyed it's natural environment. So
| basically it's a nice experiment, but that's mostly it.
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| My first thought (from the title) was that cloning won't save you
| from having too small of a population because below a certain
| threshold there's not enough genetic diversity (if you have 20
| living specimens and you clone them to get 40, you still only
| have 20 individuals worth of DNA). But (on reading the article)
| it turns out that the big deal is that they cloned it from a
| (long) dead animal, which means that they've actually increased
| available genetic diversity in the living gene pool. So that's
| cool:)
| redisman wrote:
| Great news. I wonder is the new ferret fertile? I know that can
| be an issue with manipulated species.
| maxerickson wrote:
| I'm sure the intent is that it be fertile (so they've chosen
| their methods and so on with that in mind), but it's still to
| young to know.
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