Genetics

07/16/2007

Genetics from Siberia

What Can a Baby Mammoth Teach Us?

Last week, scientists announced the discovery of an almost perfectly preserved baby mammoth in the permafrost of Siberia. SPIEGEL spoke to evolution scientist Michael Hofreiter from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig about what the young female means for science.

SPIEGEL: Researchers are falling all over themselves to examine the intact baby mammoth found in the permafrost of Siberia. Will scientists be able to clone it?

Hofreiter: Cloning a mammoth isn't possible: Anyone who says otherwise shouldn't be taken seriously. For a successful cloning, you would need intact cells complete with organelles and DNA in chromosome form. What we have is the genome in millions of pieces -- they are just fragmentary. At the most, one could replace single genes, as is done with mice. But to transform an Asian elephant into a mammoth would require millions of substitutions.

SPIEGEL: For geneticists, in other words, this discovery isn't really much of a sensation?

Hofreiter: From the perspective of its DNA, the find isn't so interesting. But in terms of studying the animal's structure, you can see all of the anatomical details. And interesting anatomical characteristics can direct researchers' attention to specific individual genes which are worth studying.

SPIEGEL: Can you draw any conclusions as to why mammoths died out?

Hofreiter: In the last ice age, there were huge waves of extinctions. The question as to why species of mammals tend to disappear simultaneously -- like the disappearance of the Australian mega-fauna 45,000 years ago -- is important for science, and also very pertinent today. Given global warming, it is important to understand what effects such changes have on animal populations.

SPIEGEL: And DNA analysis can help answer such questions?

Hofreiter: Absolutely, at least when enough individuals have been examined. Then one can see how populations developed by studying genetic deviations. Mathematical models can tell us how quickly the size of different populations changed over time.

SPIEGEL: Have enough mammoth remains been found to create such an analysis of the mammoth population?

Hofreiter: For sure. There have now been literally thousands of mammoth individuals found that we could extract DNA from.

Interview conducted by Anwen Roberts

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