Mammoth’s haemoglobin resurrection explain how they survived extreme cold
May 3rd, 2010 - 2:08 pm ICT by ANILondon, May 3 (ANI): Canadian scientists have resurrected haemoglobin of woolly mammoth - a blood protein that may explain how the animals coped with the cold of an ice age.
It is the first time that proteins from a long-dead organism have been recreated in a living cell.
And researchers believe that other extinct animals, including Neanderthals, are sure to follow suit.
Such techniques will make it possible to explore exactly how extinct animals lived, rather than making educated guesses based on reconstructed gene sequences.
Woolly mammoths died out about 3500 years ago. They shared an African ancestor with elephants around 7 million years ago, before moving north between 1 and 2 million years ago.
To cope with the cold, they developed smaller ears and fur coats.
Kevin Campbell of the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, was curious to see if their proteins had changed too.
“The only way was to resurrect them,” New Scientist quoted him as saying.
His team began with DNA from a 43,000-year-old mammoth from Siberia. Its haemoglobin- the blood protein that ferries oxygen around the body-contains three genetic sequences not found in Asian elephants, its closest living relative.
The researchers engineered these sequences into an Asian elephant haemoglobin gene, then used Eschicheria coli to produce millions of copies of the resurrected protein.
Haemoglobin is designed to load up on oxygen in the lungs and release the gas when it gets to warmer, exercised muscles.
This posed a challenge for mammoths because their muscles probably weren’t warm enough to coax oxygen away from haemoglobin.
The animals solved this problem by evolving a less heat-hungry haemoglobin protein that offloaded oxygen at low temperatures, discovered the team.
Campbell said that his team is resurrecting other mammoth proteins, and he suspects that teams studying other ancient organisms are doing the same.
Neanderthals are a prime candidate, and a draft of their complete genome will be published shortly, allowing researchers to identify proteins that are different from human versions. (ANI)
- Woolly mammoth to be brought back to life in five years - Dec 04, 2011
- Extinct woolly mammoth could be reborn in four years - Jan 14, 2011
- Russian, South Korean scientists vow to revive mammoth - Mar 14, 2012
- Scientists getting closer to resurrect extinct animals - Jan 11, 2010
- Africa has two, not one, species of elephant - Dec 22, 2010
- Mammoths, reindeers already lived on Iberian Peninsula 150,000 yrs ago - Sep 08, 2010
- Did Ice Age giants' ancestors originate in Tibet? - Sep 05, 2011
- Humans, climate changed wiped out Ice Age mammals - Nov 06, 2011
- Delayed, longer weaning 'could have led to woolly mammoths' extinction' - Dec 22, 2010
- Scientists extract protein from ancient bones - Jun 06, 2011
- 'Healthy mammoth could be reborn in 4 or 5 years' - Jan 14, 2011
- Neanderthal males had Popeye-like arms - Jul 07, 2010
- Europe was populated by Kashmiris around 40,000 years ago: Study - Apr 03, 2011
- Protein from 600,000-year-old mammoth sheds light on ancient fossils - Mar 31, 2011
- Scientists sequence woolly-mammoth genome for the first time - Nov 20, 2008
Tags: ancestor, ancient organisms, asian elephant, asian elephants, blood protein, canadian scientists, extinct animals, ferries, fur coats, gene sequences, genetic sequences, haemoglobin, kevin campbell, million years, neanderthals, new scientist, organism, university of manitoba, winnipeg canada, woolly mammoths
