Tasmanian tiger lives in a mouse

MEDICAL researchers have used DNA extracted from the preserved tissue of a Tasmanian tiger to grow cartilage in a mouse - the first time material from an extinct species has induced a response in a living organism.

The breakthrough by Australian and US researchers - published yesterday in the international journal PLoS One - has the potential to create new cancer-fighting biomedicines.

The discovery took nine years and initially aimed to prove genetic material could be extracted from an extinct animal.

It culminated with universities of Melbourne and Texas researchers extracting genes from 100-year-old thylacine tissue preserved in ethanol and inserting it into a mouse embryo, which then "showed a function" in developing cartilage.

The results show the thylacine Col2a1 gene has a similar function in developing cartilage and bone as the same gene does in the mouse. "As more species ... become extinct, we are continuing to lose critical knowledge of gene function and their potential," said research team leader and Melbourne University zoologist Andrew Pask.

"Until now, we have only been able to examine gene sequences from extinct animals. This research was developed to go one step further - to examine extinct gene function in a whole organism."

A fellow researcher, University of Texas molecular geneticist Richard Behringer, said the discovery could lead to new biomedicines.

"We are also gaining a better understanding of the biology of extinct animals," he said.

The last known Tasmanian tiger died in captivity in Hobart Zoo in 1936 after the marsupial carnivore was hunted to extinction in the early 1900s.

Team member Professor Marilyn Renfree said the resurrected thylacine DNA, held by the Museum Victoria, which had developed mouse cartilage would later form bone.

"At a time when extinction rates are increasing at an alarming rate, especially of mammals, the research discovery is critical," she said.

article from this site ------> Tasmanian tiger lives in a mouse | The Australian

Supposedly extinct.

Yay! Ty lives on!

I didn't understand, from reading that article, how this can help with cancer.

Quite interesting, I keep forgetting all about the Thylacine since they're only ever focusing on the Devil these days :<

So they've created Tasmanian Tiger-Mouse hybrids that are immune to cancer?

The world is doomed.