DISPATCH FROM FRANCE
Liberation. fr, September 12, 2012
"LIVING CELLS OF A MAMMOTH, DISCOVERED IN RUSSIA"
"Russian scientists have affirmed that they have discovered in Sibiera, with colleagues from South Korea, cells of the mammoth with their nuclei apparently alive, which could, perhaps, permit the cloning of these pachyderms which have been lost form the surface of the earth for thousands of years.
Semen Grigoriev, head of the expedition, has stated that the group had discovered about twenty samples of mamouth tissue, of which some have preserved their nucleus, apparently still alive.About a score of explorers, of which seven are Russians from the Federal University of Iakoutie and four South Korean experts from the SOOAM Foundation for Biotechnology, have searched all the month of August for material suitable for cloning on the Iana River about 2,000 km north of Iakoutsk Eastern Siberia.
The local inhabitants search for the tusks of the mammoths which they utilize for artisanal projects or for resale. (They no doubt helped locate possible dig sites. rjk).
"On the 27th of August, after having excavated a number of bones of stags and rhinos, we, were almost ready to abandon or search when: at the depth of 300 feet we found a number of pieces of fatty substance, jelly-like in the permafrost, with hair and bones of the mammoth which contained marrow, and which were covered with muscular tissue, (the bone marrow) usable for cloning, according to the South Korean experts," recounted Dr. Grigoiev. "Thanks to a special solution, which tints the DNA , we have been able to observe, under the electron microscope immediately, that the nuclei of certain cells of the marrow were blue, thus living" he has added.The South Korean Hwang Woo Suk, a pioneer in cloning animals who participated in the expedition, "has been very satisfied (with the materials)" stated Dr. Grigoriev.
"If the results are confirmed in the laboratory in Seoul, these nuclei of somatic cells which contain the complete genome of the species could permit us to proceed to cloning a mammoth, as previously agreed to with SOOAM", has explained Sergueï Fedorov, of the Museum of Mammoths in Iakoutsk.
The accord signed in March between SOOAM and the Federal University of Russia envisions joint research with a view to creating a mammoth, lost from the surface of the earth for the last 10,000 years.
Hwang Woo-Suk is a specialist in cloning. He has announced having realized two "world firsts". He has had two worlds firsts in 2004 and 2005, affirming having extracted (souche) body cells from human embryos for cloning. However, some other geneticists have rapidly countered that the researcher was accused of questionable or falsified results and may have obtained these cells accidentally by parthenogenesis rather than by cloning. Dr Hwang never-the-less remains the author known as the first scientist to clone a dog, known as "Snuppy" in 2005.
The samples of mammoth tissues recovered in the Siberian permafrost, "will be expedited to SOOAM in October, in which time we will have received the permission for its release from Russia", has added Mr. Federov.
The first step of cloning , the most difficult, will be to restore the cells in isolation in well preserved tissues, having genes in a good state of preservation. Following that they must transfer the nuclei of the mammoth cells into the enucleated ovuoles of an elephant, with the result of producing embryos having the DNA of a mammoth, who which will be emplaced in the uterus of a Asian elephant.The scientists admit that their chances of success are weak, but think that the cloning is possible.About a dozen species of animals have been, to date successfully cloned, of which some apes, a mouse (1997), a pig (2000), and a coyote in 2011."
Quoted from:Liberation.fr
September 12, 2012.
Translation from the French by rjk
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