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Scientists say they have done something that has never been done before - recreated the three-dimensional structure of the woolly mammoth's genetic blueprint. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein has the details on the research.
ROB STEIN, BYLINE: For years, scientists have been able to kind of peer back in time by analyzing fragments of ancient DNA recovered from bones, teeth, mummies, even strands of hair. Erez Lieberman Aiden studies genomes at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
EREZ LIEBERMAN AIDEN: In biology, one of the most powerful tools for understanding the history of life on this planet is ancient DNA. It's found sprinkled all over the place in historical sites going back millions of years.
STEIN: But there's only so much scientists can learn from those snippets of DNA. So Aiden and his colleagues launched an international effort to try to recreate the three-dimensional structure of the DNA of an extinct creature.
LIEBERMAN AIDEN: And in so doing, you would be able to see exactly how that chromosome was shaped in the living cell, and you would be able to both get a deeper understanding of the genomes of ancient and extinct species and how those genomes worked.
STEIN: The scientists decided to focus their quest on the woolly mammoth, a shaggy species of elephant that roamed the tundra thousands of years ago.
LIEBERMAN AIDEN: Initially, we had embarrassingly bad ideas. I'm a little ashamed to admit it. We said, oh, you know, that looks like a good-looking piece of mammoth on Ebay. Let's try that. Ebay is a bad place to get your mammoth samples.
STEIN: After searching for five years, the team finally found a well-preserved mammoth specimen - skin from behind the ear of a 52,000-year-old female found freeze-dried in Siberia in 2018. Olga Dudchenko works with Aiden at Baylor.
OLGA DUDCHENKO: It was a piece of a mammoth's skin that was, you know, woolly, true to the name.
STEIN: That specimen enabled the team to reconstruct the three-dimensional structure of all 28 of the mammoth's chromosomes.
LIEBERMAN AIDEN: So we were able to assemble the genome of a woolly mammoth just as, 25 years ago, humans were excited for the first time to assemble our own genomes. Well, now we can do that for animals that are long extinct. And so that's obviously a milestone.
STEIN: Not only that. The team has been able to peer into the genome to start learning what individual mammoth genes did.
LIEBERMAN AIDEN: And that's really exciting, to be able to look at an extinct creature and be able to say, oh, yes, I can see this gene was on. That gene was on. This gene was off. Oh, isn't that surprising? The ability to do all these sorts of specific things in woolly mammoth is exciting.
STEIN: In fact, by comparing the mammoth genome to DNA from modern elephants, the scientists have already discovered clues to what made the woolly mammoth, well, woolly.
DUDCHENKO: We have been internally discussing if we should start, you know, a hair club for mammoths.
STEIN: But seriously, that insight could help scientists who are trying to bring the mammoth back from extinction by endowing modern-day Asian elephants with mammoth traits, like their hairiness, and maybe even let them loose to graze the tundra again. Other scientists praise the advance.
KARL FLESSA: Preservation of genetic architecture for the woolly mammoth is really quite remarkable.
STEIN: Karl Flessa is at the University of Arizona, but he opposes bringing back the woolly mammoth.
FLESSA: Just because you can do it doesn't mean that it should be done. A genetically modified Asian elephant is not a woolly mammoth, and releasing such an animal into the wild would be arrogant and irresponsible.
STEIN: Who knows, Flessa says, what unintended consequences could result from a woolly mammoth-like creature roaming the Earth again? Rob Stein, NPR News.
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