[HN Gopher] A lab pursuing de-extinction of the thylacine partne...
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A lab pursuing de-extinction of the thylacine partners with a
genetics company
Author : ohjeez
Score : 65 points
Date : 2022-08-19 15:39 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.unimelb.edu.au)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.unimelb.edu.au)
| rob_c2 wrote:
| Is this likely to be the first de-extinct animal which we can
| bring back does anyone know?
| mminer237 wrote:
| The Pyrenean ibex was de-extincted for 7 minutes:
| https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/news-buca...
|
| There are a number of other candidates, though. I would guess
| either the thylacine, the woolly mammoth, or the passenger
| pigeon would be first to sustain an actual population, but I
| don't really follow the projects:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De-extinction#Current_candidat...
| biodarren wrote:
| Colossal (the company mentioned in the article) is actively
| working on the mammoth as well -->
| https://colossal.com/mammoth/
|
| Source: I work there.
| rossdavidh wrote:
| "We can now take the giant leaps..." says Professor Pask of the
| Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research (TIGRR) Lab.
|
| Which is a lot more accurate than the article headline, which
| says that they _have already_ taken a 'giant leap'. I expect such
| exaggeration and overstatement from mainstream news sources; I
| suppose I should not be surprised to see it coming from a
| university website.
| zitterbewegung wrote:
| At least they didn't say quantum leap...
| PopePompus wrote:
| Or exponential leap.
| [deleted]
| tmountain wrote:
| If they are successful, how do they navigate challenges related
| to inbreeding given what is likely to be a very small population
| of adult animals to work with?
| kibwen wrote:
| Since the thylacine has been extinct for less than a century,
| they appear to be hoping that there's enough genetic diversity
| in modern preserved samples to eventually produce a diverse
| population. Even with a highly limited population, if you
| strictly control which pairs breed and aggressively pair the
| ones that are least related, you only need an initial
| population of like 16 or something to eventually reach a state
| where you have a large breeding population where most
| individuals don't share grandparents, at which point you can
| let nature take over.
| biodarren wrote:
| Oh hey! I joined Colossal Biosciences 6 months ago from a post on
| the Who's Hiring thread and can say it's an incredible place to
| work, with some of the sharpest people I've ever met in both the
| biology and computer science space. This is just one of several
| awesome projects we're working on.
|
| We're actively hiring frontend and backend engineers (React,
| Golang, GCP/multicloud). Drop a line: darren @ colossal.com
| thehappypm wrote:
| Any thoughts on mitochondria? They are basically sub-organisms
| with their own DNA. Another organism's mitochondria is going to
| be different.
| ramesh31 wrote:
| It's amazing what an incredibly prescient work of science fiction
| Jurassic Park (the novel) really was. Before CRISPR, before
| Dolly, before the Human Genome, Crichton called it.
| jl6 wrote:
| The 1982 paper that inspired Crichton to think about ancient
| insects in amber:
|
| https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.215.4537.1241
| dclowd9901 wrote:
| One can't help but wonder how much the movie influenced the
| work
| russdill wrote:
| It's an idea that's been around a long time. Even the
| specific idea of a dinosaur park with cloned dinosaurs is not
| novel to the novel:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cursed_Earth_(Judge_Dredd_.
| ..
| drcode wrote:
| Your comment supposes that (1) not a lot of people were talking
| about the idea back then and (2) that we have made significant
| progress in cloning extinct animals
|
| I think a lot of people were talking about the idea back then
| and also we've had very little progress since then (despite
| flowery "news" articles like OP)
| shellfisher wrote:
| It seems like the only "leap" is partnering with some other
| group. Which, yes, organizing is critical on large scale
| projects... but for those of us looking for a breakthrough, I
| guess we've been clickbaited.
| themitigating wrote:
| The submitter altered the headline
| JoeAltmaier wrote:
| I wonder, have they asked the people of Tasmania if they want it
| back? It's Jurassic Park writ small.
| nickserv wrote:
| This is different since they were exterminated by humans, not
| by natural processes. It could be argued we have the moral
| obligation to bring them back if able.
| axg11 wrote:
| De-extinction doesn't necessarily mean they will release
| animals back into the wild. Presumably a portion of animal
| behaviour is learned and passed down from the previous
| generation. Animals produced by de-extinction will be lacking
| these behaviours and perhaps best off in captivity.
| immmmmm wrote:
| yes, this is something most ppl get wrong.
| foobarian wrote:
| It's too bad it would be highly unethical to run experiments
| with humans in tabula rasa environments. It would be really
| neat to see what different social behaviors emerge.
| leeoniya wrote:
| that taxidermy job should be redone. the head/face looks nothing
| like the real thing. it looks comical, like a bad sock puppet.
|
| https://earthlymission.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/tasman...
|
| vs
|
| https://www.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/image/0004/4255339/...
| pimlottc wrote:
| The photos are from different angles, it's hard to say whether
| they look that much different. Of course the muzzle is going to
| appear shorter in a front view and it's hard to tell what the
| mouth line would be from the first photo.
| wonderwonder wrote:
| Wonder if they are successful if they just go extinct again. Will
| they know how to hunt and reproduce? Interesting test of nature
| vs nurture.
| aetherson wrote:
| The claim from the researchers is that there has been a lot of
| success in reintroducing human-raised animals into the wild,
| and that for mammals, most hunting/etc behavior is indeed
| instinctive.
| bencollier49 wrote:
| An interesting test of some of the claims about
| epigenetics...
| rpastuszak wrote:
| Why?
| waserwill wrote:
| My guess: if non-genetic heritable elements --
| epigenetics (such as modifications to DNA) -- are
| necessary for proper development, then the DNA sequence
| alone will not be enough to develop thylacines. (There
| are caveats, notably that some modifications can be
| inferred). However, the scientists will also be
| experimenting with gestation and creating embryos from
| modified cells, so whether epigenetics specifically is a
| limiting factor will be hard to tell.
| dsign wrote:
| This is a really great point. I want very much their
| effort to succeed, but I suspect epigenetic is so
| important for higher organisms that the chances of this
| working are rather low.
| bencollier49 wrote:
| Yes, that was basically my point. There has also been
| some fairly fevered speculation about epigenetics being
| responsible for some types of instinct - even "cross-
| generational memories" and the like.
| peteradio wrote:
| My family dog growing up was taught to hunt song birds by their
| mother. I don't think I've seen something so cute as a mother
| retriever crouch walking through the brush with 8 little pups
| in tow.
| bilsbie wrote:
| Worst case you provide 90% of their food and decrease it a
| little bit for each generation until they've learned how to
| hunt.
| WalterBright wrote:
| See "Born Free".
| dzuc wrote:
| Another thing William Gibson accurately predicted?
| kingsloi wrote:
| Wow, I was just reading about Benjamin, the last known captive
| thylacine filmed in 1935
|
| > https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-footage-benjam...
| RajT88 wrote:
| There are periodic sightings of them. Although not with high
| enough confidence or documentation to say definitely, "They are
| still out there".
| jonny_eh wrote:
| It's not plausible that such a large animal can have a self-
| sustaining population in the wild, and not be properly
| detected by the scientific community for 100 years.
| Zanni wrote:
| Twelve animals thought to be extinct, some for hundreds,
| one for _millions_ of years, before being rediscovered:
| https://www.treehugger.com/lazarus-species-extinct-
| animals-f...
| jhbadger wrote:
| Except that in general the "rediscovery" isn't something
| dramatic -- it's just a systematist in a lab looking at
| an animal known by many and realizing that it is the same
| species as fossilized/preserved specimens thought to be
| extinct rather than a common related species. That's
| quite different from finding a thylacine, an animal that
| couldn't be confused with anything else.
| MichaelCollins wrote:
| This seems like a very inaccurate summary of the examples
| given in that article.
| jhbadger wrote:
| Bermuda Petrel -- there are many nearly identical
| petrels, exactly the same to non-experts.
|
| Chacoan Peccary -- There are many wild pigs.
|
| Coelacanth -- Maybe the only real example of a
| "rediscovered species". But that's only because we know
| the oceans far less than we know the land.
|
| Lord Howe Island Stick Insect -- You've probably seen a
| stick insect like this yourself even if it is genetically
| different.
|
| La Palma Giant Lizard -- Same genus as Gallotia, a very
| common lizard on the Canary islands.
|
| Takahe -- It's the same genus as the swamp hen. To an
| non-expert, they are the same.
|
| Cuban Solenodon -- it looks like a common shrew to non-
| experts.
|
| New Caledonian Crested Gecko -- It's a geko.
|
| New Holland Mouse -- it's a mouse (not a marsupial,
| despite being native to Australia).
|
| Giant Palouse Earthworm -- It's an earthworm, although
| larger than normal.
|
| Large-Billed Reed-Warbler -- same genus as many other
| warblers, exactly the same to non-experts who don't
| measure the bill.
|
| Laotian Rock Rat -- It actually is of a unique genus, so
| more interesting than most of these examples, but still,
| it's a rodent not that different to the average person
| than other rodents.
| RajT88 wrote:
| https://www.discoverwildlife.com/animal-
| facts/mammals/extinc...
| mensetmanusman wrote:
| One might be greatly overestimating the number of scientist
| per hectare.
| Apocryphon wrote:
| Not exciting enough for the cryptozoologists to track
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