SHARE:
submit to reddit



Frozen balls could bring mammoths back to life
mongabay.com
August 15, 2006


Scientists have successfully bred mice using dead sperm extracted from frozen mice. The research raises the possibility that long-extinct species could one day be brought back to life.







Mammoth image from US National Parks Service.

The researchers, led by Atsuo Ogura of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research Bioresource Center in Japan, successfully raised healthy offspring using a sperm extracted from mouse sex organs and entire mice frozen for periods ranging from a week to a year at -80 degrees Celsius. They also were able to produce healthy offspring from sperm retrieved from mice frozen at -20C for 15 years.

"Obviously, those frozen [sperm] were all dead in the conventional sense," wrote the researchers in the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "Motionless sperm had no chance whatsoever of fertilising in vivo or in vitro. Nevertheless, some of these, if not all, were ... genomically intact, because they were able to produce apparently normal offspring."

Their findings may be significant for long-extinct species as well as species currently at risk of extinction.

"If [sperm] of extinct mammalian species (eg woolly mammoth) can be retrieved from animal bodies that were kept frozen for millions of years in permanent frost, live animals might be restored by injecting them into [eggs] from females of closely related species," wrote the scientists.






Recommend this article? Comments?
>Digg this article | >Hugg this article | Contact

News options





SHARE THIS ARTICLE:
print


Tags:
extinction strange happy-upbeat environmental green

CITATION:
mongabay.com (August 15, 2006). Frozen balls could bring mammoths back to life. http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0815-mammoth.html



News index | RSS | News Feed | Twitter | Home


Advertisements:


Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing




Mongabay Store
Wildlife of Madagascar T-shirt
Wildlife of Madagascar T-shirt
Bold and Dangerous - Pygmy tyrant t-shirts
Bold and Dangerous - Pygmy tyrant
Love me before I'm gone - Gladiator frog t-shirts
Love me before I'm gone - Gladiator frog
Licking this frog may make you crazy t-shirts
Licking this frog may make you crazy



MONGABAY.COM
Mongabay.com seeks to raise interest in and appreciation of wild lands and wildlife, while examining the impact of emerging trends in climate, technology, economics, and finance on conservation and development (more)

CONTENTS
Rainforests
Tropical Fish
News
Madagascar
Pictures
Kids' Site
Languages
TCS Journal
About
Archives
Topics | RSS
Newsletter



WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Email:


INTERACT
Facebook
Contact
Twitter
Advertise
Photo Store
Help


SUPPORT
Help support mongabay.com when you buy from Amazon.com



POPULAR PAGES
Rainforests
Rain forests
Amazon deforestation
Deforestation
Deforestation stats
Why rainforests matter
Saving rainforests
Deforestation stats
Rainforest canopy

News
Most popular articles
Worth saving?
Forest conservation
Earth Day
Poverty alleviation
Cell phones in Africa
Seniors helping Africa
Saving orangutans in Borneo
Palm oil
Amazon palm oil
Future of the Amazon
Cane toads
Dubai environment
Investing to save rainforests
Visiting the rainforest
Biomimicry
Defaunation
Blue lizard
Amazon fires
Extinction debate
Extinction crisis
Blackwashing
Industrial deforestation
Save the Amazon
Rainforests & REDD
Brazil's Amazon plan
Malaysian palm oil
Avatar story
New Guinea
Sulawesi
Amazon ranching
Madagascar
Borneo

News topics
Amazon
Biofuels
Brazil
Carbon Finance
Conservation
Climate Change
Deforestation
Energy
Happy-upbeat
Indonesia
Interviews
Oceans
Palm oil
Rainforests
REDD
Solutions
Wildlife
MORE TOPICS



Non-English Sites
Chinese
Farsi
French
German
Greek
Indonesian
Portuguese
Spanish
Other languages
GA_googleFillSlot("news_160x600_btf_right");

Photo sections
Argentina photos
Australia photos
Belize photos
Botswana photos
Brazil photos
Burma photos
Cambodia photos
China photos
Colombia photos
Costa Rica photos
Croatia photos
Deforestation photos
Frog photos
Gabon photos
Grand Canyon photos
Guatemala photos
Honduras photos
Iceland photos
India photos
Indonesia photos
Kenya photos
Laos photos
Lemur photos
Madagascar photos
Malaysia photos
Mexico photos
Monkey photos
New Zealand photos
Panama photos
Peru photos
Rainforest photos
Slovenia photos
Sunset photos
Suriname photos
Tanzania photos
Thailand photos
Uganda photos
United States photos
Venezuela photos





STORE

SHIRTS
HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTOS / PRINTS


CALENDARS
  • Mount Kenya
  • East Africa Safari Wildlife
  • Kenya's Turkana People
  • Peru
  • African Wildlife
  • Alaska
  • China
  • Madagascar Chameleons


    CANVAS BAGS

  • Hallucinogenic frog bag
  • Madagascar wildlife bag








  • Copyright mongabay 2010