The Kyoto University team is off to Siberia this summer in search of frozen mammoth tissue. If the expedition is unsuccessful, though, the team believes that suitable cells may be obtained from a mammoth preserved in a Russian research laboratory.
"Preparations to realize this goal have been made," team leader Akira Iritani, leader of the team and a professor emeritus of Kyoto University, told AP.
Previous attempts to clone the mammoth have failed because nuclei in the cells were too badly damaged by ice crystals. But in 2008, Japanese scientists succeeded in cloning a mouse from cells which had been frozen for 16 years, raising hopes for the resurrection of the mammoth.
If nuclei can be successfully extracted, they'll be inserted into egg cells from an African elephant from which the nuclei have already been removed. The aim is to create an embryo which can then be implanted into an elephant's womb. Read the full report here.
Melissa Groo
Save the Elephants News Service Researcher
For further information on elephants please see Save the Elephants' web site
at http://www.savetheelephants.org
This Save the Elephants project is supported by the International Elephant Foundation. http://www.elephantconservation.org
Source: Kate Taylor, TG Daily.
