Scientists clone TWO endangered animals using frozen genes from 1988: process could save OTHER species from extinction

A species on the brink of extinction has a promising future after scientists cloned an animal that has been frozen in time since the 1980s.

Scientists from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have successfully cloned two black-footed ferrets, which they hope to breed when they reach full maturity later this year.

The ferrets, named Antonia and Noreen, could be the much-needed solution to the survival of the species, which has dwindled to just 300 in the wild.

The cloning process is similar to that of Dolly the Sheep in 1996, which required scientists to inject the DNA cells of a donor animal into an egg cell.

Antonia and Noreen were the second and third black-footed ferrets to be cloned last May, after Elizabeth Ann in 2021.

Noreen and Antonia were bred from frozen tissue samples collected in 1988 from a black-footed ferret named Willa that was stored at the Zoo Wildlife Alliance’s Frozen Zoo in San Diego.

Scientists cloned the animals by taking one of Willa’s cells and injecting it into an egg of a domesticated ferret.

The process is called somatic cell cloning, which involves removing DNA tissue from a donor cell and replacing the DNA already present in an egg cell.

From there, scientists implant the altered egg into a surrogate mother of the same species, and when it is born, it is genetically identical to the donor DNA it came from.

Willa had no living offspring, so scientists hoped that by freezing some of her cells they could reproduce the population in the future.

The FWS has not announced any plans to clone any more black-footed ferrets, saying only that they are focusing on making sure Antonia and Noreen are healthy while scientists try to breed them, but that they have no plans yet to other endangered animals to clone.

Scientists preserved the samples because they contain three times more unique genetic variations than the current population, making them ideal for cloning.

When it comes to cloning, genetic variation is important because it helps the species adapt and survive in the wild, making them vulnerable to disease outbreaks and future environmental changes.

Inbreeding, which occurs in populations of small animals such as the black-footed ferret, could reduce the species’ ability to reproduce and survive in the wild.

“With only seven genetic founders, the genetic diversity of the black-footed ferret has been a concern in the captive breeding program,” the FWS said.

‘Small population size and low genetic diversity are problematic’ said Dr. Marty Kardos, geneticist at NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center.

“These conditions make populations more vulnerable to extinction,” he added.

The species’ population decline was so dramatic that they were thought extinct in the early 1970s, but were rediscovered ten years later when a dog brought home a dead black-footed ferret, prompting the discovery of seven specimens still in the wild were left behind.

Today, all extant black-footed ferrets are related to the seven founding ferrets discovered in 1981 in Meeteetse, Wyoming.

The two ferrets follow in the footsteps of Elizabeth Ann – the first successful clone from Willa’s DNA in 2021 – and although researchers hoped to breed her, all attempts were unsuccessful.

Elizabeth suffered from a problem with her reproductive organs that was not caused by being cloned, but scientists now have high hopes for Antonia and Noreen’s reproduction.

The FWS confirmed the two baby ferrets are “healthy and continue to meet expected developmental and behavioral milestones.”

The agency added that it “views this new potential tool as one of many strategies to promote species recovery, in addition to efforts to address habitat challenges and other barriers to recovery.”

According to Barbara Durrant, director of reproductive sciences at the Frozen Zoo, an estimated one million species are on the brink of extinction, and this can only be corrected by scientific discoveries such as the cloning of Elizabeth, Noreen and Antonia.

‘If we were to disappear, many things would grow back. But some populations are so small, or don’t even exist except here, that they wouldn’t be able to regenerate without us,” Durrant told us. CBS News.

The cloned ferrets will remain at the National Black-footed Ferret Conservation Center in Colorado and not be released into the wild, so scientists can continue to assess their developments.

In recent years, scientists have cloned other animals, including the rhesus monkey named Retro, who was born in July 2020 – making it “the first living and healthy cloned rhesus monkey.”

It “is a major step forward from impossible to possible,” Falong Lu, a researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Molecular Developmental Biology, told me. CNN.

Last month, China became the first country to successfully clone Tibetan goats using the same process scientists used to clone Dolly the Sheep in 1996.

The goats were cloned from males in an attempt to ‘restore and preserve’ their genetics from the ‘outstanding individuals’ of the species.