Startup colossal de-extinction Biosciences has mice published in genes to have mammoth type characteristics, creating what the company calls colossal woolly mouse. Laboratory mice, which have been modified to have shaggy fur and golden layers, are a demonstration of the type of gene modifications that society hopes to make on a much larger scale, modifying Asian elephants to look more closely to their woolly mammoth ancestors.
The genomes of colossal mice were published in several points to change their fur, so it was longer, frizzer and more golden than that of normal laboratory mice. Some of the mice have also had changes to a gene involved in the metabolism of fatty acids, which should change the way animals store fat – another key difference between mammoths and Asian elephants. Among several cohorts of genic published mouse, one set had modifications in seven different genes, most of which were involved in the hair type and one of which controlled fat metabolism.
Scientists already have a good understanding of how changes in mouse genetics influence their fur, so that most of the changes selected by colossal scientists have recreated these changes rather than using mammoth DNA as a model. “We have not only pushed mammoths genes into a mouse. 200 million years ago of evolutionary divergence between them, and that would make no sense ”from a scientific or ethical point of view, explains Beth Shapiro, director of colossal sciences.
In addition to the already well understood genes from the research on the mouse, colossal scientists also extracted the genomes of ancient mammoth to identify three genes which seemed important for the adaptation of mammoths to the cold. Two of these genes influenced the hair type, while a third party affected fat metabolism. The researchers then tried different combinations of modifications in various mouse groups, producing mice with frizzy fur, some with curly mustaches and some with soft golden coats. Experiences are described in a preparation article that has not been assessed or published in a scientific journal.
“These mice are massively adorable,” explains the co -founder and CEO colossal Ben Lamm. “They are much more cute than expected, which probably means that our first generation mammoths will also be also cute.” Lamm shared a photo of woolly mice in their habitat in colossal offices, accompanied by a gigantic woolly toy and living on a snowy background. The company has no intention of reproducing or selling woolly mice, added the CEO.
The colossal experience raises questions about changes in genes that qualify to make a mouse – or an Asian elephant – mammoth type, explains Vincent Lynch, development biologist at the University of Buffalo in New York who was not involved in the colossal study. Colossal mice are more soft and more frizzes than most laboratory mice, that’s for sure, but these features always appear on other mice naturally. Or, to put it differently, is a chow chow mammoth like a chihuahua, or is it just a much more soft dog?
Where you land on this spectrum is partly a question of semantics and partly one of genetics. Colossal refers to its potential dis-brew mammoths such as “cold-resistant elephants”, with the basic biological features of a mammoth but genetically almost identical to an Asian elephant. Lamm claims that the company aims about 85 genes to create cold -resistant elephants and experienced the 25 genes of these genes. The mice published by genes, he says, will be useful for testing less visible features such as fat metabolism.
