Can you say "Jurassic Park"?

[longam]

Originally Posted by frau kaleun

I don't see how anything could possibly go wro-

As long as they eat all the blood sucking lawyers first, we'll be fine.

[Growler]

John Hammond: Don't worry, I'm not making the same mistakes again.
Dr. Ian Malcolm: No, you're making all new ones.

Originally Posted by longam

As long as they eat all the blood sucking lawyers first, we'll be fine.

I kinda like the idea of naming one president, we might actually get some stuff done in Washington if we do.

[UnderseaLcpl]

Does this sound to anyone else as though it wouldn't work without making serious genetic modifications to the mammoth? Wouldn't the mother's.... I mean parent 1's or 2's, or whatever's body reject the embryo? Well, not reject the embryo per se but end up toxifying or starving it? And that's assuming they even get it to a placental stage.

There's a reason why you can't make a chimp give birth to a human or killer whale to a bottlenose dolphin or what have you, and I don't mean some divine reason or the fact that it would be very....unnatural. Elephants and mammoths are pretty close from a genetic perspective, but they aren't that close. There's quite a bit of difficulty involved with implanting an embryo amongst members of the exact same species, and that's without having the zygote's chromosomal structure replaced by that of a species which has not been co-evolving for like, 10,000 years.

I must admit, I've never cloned an animal myself so I have to assume that these guys have some kind of workaround, but even so I can't help but get the feeling that somebody didn't think this through. Time will tell, but if their intent is to simply stick mammoth genes in an elephant cell, as the article puts it, I'm pretty dang sure this won't work.

[papa_smurf]

It will be possible, but will take a few generations to get a "pure" mammoth.

[Penguin]

Breeding simular races is practiced since a long time, for example between donkeys and horses.

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

a species which has not been co-evolving for like, 10,000 years.

This is quite important. All the enivromental influences/illnesses that elephants have adapted to, are not in the mammoth's DNA. So I think the hybrid could be very vunerable to stuff like this.

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by Penguin

Breeding simular races is practiced since a long time, for example between donkeys and horses.

That's not even close to the same thing. Donkeys are horses in every genetic sense and their offspring are always sterile when they actually manage to survive pregnancy. Were one to cross a 10,000 year-old extinct species of equus with a horse, I would expect little result.

This is quite important. All the enivromental influences/illnesses that elephants have adapted to, are not in the mammoth's DNA. So I think the hybrid could be very vunerable to stuff like this.

My point, exactly. There's a good chance that the mother's immune system will generate antibodies, Killer-T's, and other protein-specific anitigens that will simply destroy the mammoth embryo, or eject it from the uterus. My knowledge of pregnancy dynamics is limited, however. I was hoping that we might have a natal physician in our midst who could explain how such a thing might work.

[Penguin]

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

That's not even close to the same thing. Donkeys are horses in every genetic sense and their offspring are always sterile when they actually manage to survive pregnancy. Were one to cross a 10,000 year-old extinct species of equus with a horse, I would expect little result.

Nope, horse and donkey are regarded as different species. Horses have 64 chromosomes, donkeys 62. Mules and hinnies have 63. Seldom the mule offspring may also be fertile, this may just be the result of a genetic mutation, given the huge amount of mules.

Originally Posted by UnderseaLcpl

I was hoping that we might have a natal physician in our midst who could explain how such a thing might work.

Regarding that we have virtually every job represented here, I am sure we'll get some expert answers

[UnderseaLcpl]

Originally Posted by Penguin

Nope, horse and donkey are regarded as different species. Horses have 64 chromosomes, donkeys 62. Mules and hinnies have 63. Seldom the mule offspring may also be fertile, this may just be the result of a genetic mutation, given the huge amount of mules

Yeah, but of the 62 that donkeys possess, they are all almost exact matches to those of a horse. It's those last two that usually result in sterility or non-viable offspring because they have nothing to pair with. The 63rd chromosome in a mule is almost always non-functional; the result of an equine sex-chromosome bonding with with a non-sex chromosome from a donkey. It'll fit, but the code is garbage.

When it comes to a mammoth and an elephant, the code isn't close enough to fit, let alone develop a functional placenta.

Regarding that we have virtually every job represented here, I am sure we'll get some expert answers

I hope so. I've been puzzling over this all day and I just don't see any way this would work.