The Christmas Island rat, a large rodents that went extinct in the 19th century, was used by a team of scientists to model the likelihood of bringing a species back from the dead. The researchers mapped the rat's closest living relatives after analyzing its genes. The missing 5% complicates any future attempts to resurrect the rat in a process called de-extinction. Current Biology published the research today. I'm interested in how easy or hard it will be to de- extinction by editing. Tom Gilbert, an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Copenhagen and a co-author of the paper, said in an email to Gizmodo that the article uses a computer program to come up with an idea of what might go wrong. Christmas Island rats, also known as Maclear's rat, are one of two rat species endemic to the island. The bulldog rat went extinct around the same time. One of the more recent theories is that the black rats introduced by European settlers caused the mass die-offs of the native rodents in the early 20th century.
In the paper, the researchers state that back-breeding, cloning, and gene editing are the three most popular methods for de-extinction. There are many ethical concerns with bringing back extinct species, one of which is that the money could be spent on the preservation of the creatures still with us.
The team was focused on showing how de-extinction could work, but they don't actually intend to bring back rats.
The Oxford University Museum of Natural History has ancient DNA from two skin samples of the Christmas Island rat. The Norway brown rat is the closest living relative of the extinct rat and the researchers were able to identify some of its characteristics.
A resurrected animal wouldn't be the same as the extinct group it represents. The two rat genomes were covered with genes related to hair and whiskers. Two genes were involved in the shape of the Christmas Island rat's ears. The fur color and ear shape of the Christmas Island rat could be mimicked by the researchers if they edited the Norway rat's genome.
The Norway rat's olfactory genes don't make a good basis for reconstructing them because the genes involved in their sense of smell are different. The immune response genes were not covered by the Norway rat. The researchers point out in their paper that a resurrected version of the Christmas Island rat could benefit from using the immune genes of the Norway rat.
This was a proof-of-principle model that showed how one could use gene editing to bring back a related species, like the woolly mammoth.
We aren't actually planning to do it, as the world doesn't need any more rats, and probably the money it would take to do the best job could be spent on better things.
The Woolly Mammoth could soon be brought back to life.
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