Texas-based Colossal Biosciences has plans to genetically resurrect the Tasmanian tiger, also known as the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) or the Tasmanian wolf, which went extinct in 1936 when the last known specimen died in a zoo in 1936.
According to its website, Colossal Biosciences is a self-professed “de-extinction” company working on breakthrough bioscience and genetic engineering, building radical new technologies to advance the field of genomics.
“Whatever you call it, this mythically beautiful carnivorous marsupial was a true masterpiece of biological advancement,” the company says of the project.
“Yet, the story of its extinction is a tragedy of human interference and aggression.”
Australian scientists have been hoping since the 1990s to accomplish this feat, but recent funding and technological advancements give the project a newfound chance of success.
Scientific American described the thylacine as having trademark stripes and abdominal pouches in both females and males, rare in the animal kingdom, with Australian researchers calling it “a dingo with a pouch” but its DNA also has a lot in common with the kangaroo.
OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting) reported last week that in 2017, Andrew Pask, a biosciences professor, led research that found that thylacine suffered from a lack of genetic diversity even before it was hunted to extinction by humans.
“The population today would be very susceptible to diseases, and would not be very healthy” if it still existed, Pask said back in 2017.
Pask is now part of Colossal’s new project to bring the thylacine back.
“When asked if his view on its viability had changed, he told OPB via email that the plan will incorporate diverse DNA sources.
“We have now sequenced many thylacine specimens and hope to continue doing so in this new partnership with Colossal,“ Pask said in an email to NPR.
“Even species with low genetic diversity can be brought back to healthy population numbers again if they are managed correctly."
The goal, he said, is to bring back “a good number” of animals to help ensure healthy diversity in the new population.
And while thylacine was seen as struggling in the wild, any new the population would be closely monitored, he noted.
“Cloning is a very specific scientific process.
“That process requires a living cell”, evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro of the University of California, Santa Cruz told NPR when talk of resurrecting the mammoth gained new currency in 2015.
Instead, Colossal plans to essentially create a hybrid animal with many of the characteristics of a Tasmanian tiger.
Its scientists will use CRISPR gene editing technology to splice bits of recovered thylacine DNA into the genome of a dasyurid, which is a family of carnivorous marsupials such as the numbat and Tasmanian devil that are the extinct animal's closest relatives.
The altered nucleus would then be inserted into a Dasyurid egg which would be inserted into a surrogate mother when suitably developed.
Despite the optimism of the biosciences team, several scientists remain sceptical.
Mammal expert Kris Helgen of the Australian Museum cast doubt on the possibility of editing a thylacine’s genes into a fat-tailed dunnart, given the size difference and tens of millions of years of separate evolution.
The thylacine was so unique that it's in its own taxonomic family, he told the Washington Observer, describing the current effort as “equivalent to editing the genome of a dog until it looked like a cat”.
But, the scientists working on the project hope that the reintroduction of the Tasmanian tiger will aid in conservation efforts.