RNA for the first time recovered from an extinct species A new study shows the isolation and sequencing of more than a century-old RNA molecules from a Tasmanian tiger specimen preserved at room temperature in a museum collection. This resulted in the reconstruction of skin and skeletal muscle transcriptomes from an extinct species for the first time. The researchers note that their findings have relevant implications for international efforts to resurrect extinct species, including both the Tasmanian tiger and the woolly mammoth, as well as for studying pandemic RNA viruses.

RNA for the first time recovered from an extinct species A new study shows the isolation and sequencing of more than a century-old RNA molecules from a Tasmanian tiger specimen preserved at room temperature in a museum collection. This resulted in the reconstruction of skin and skeletal muscle transcriptomes from an extinct species for the first time. The researchers note that their findings have relevant implications for international efforts to resurrect extinct species, including both the Tasmanian tiger and the woolly mammoth, as well as for studying pandemic RNA viruses.

  • AmidFuror@kbin.social
    1·
    1 year ago

    I don’t think there’s a lot of value to having the muscle transcriptome of an extinct species, since it’s probably similar enough to extant marsupial or even eutherian muscle transcriptomes. And we’re not going to be building adult thylacines from scratch using this information.

    Very surprising RNA could survive this long, though.