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ESR 14:227-233 (2011)  -  DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00366

REVIEW
Biological time machines: a realistic approach for cloning an extinct mammal

Pasqualino Loi1,*, Teruhiko Wakayama2, Joseph Saragustry3, Josef Fulka Jr4, Grazyna Ptak1

1Department of Comparative Biomedical Sciences, Piazza Aldo Moro 45, Teramo, Italy
2RIKEN Centre for Developmental Biology, 2-2-3 Minatojima-minamimachi, Kobe 650-0047, Japan
3Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Alfred-Kowalke-Straße 17, 10315 Berlin, Germany
4Institute of Animal Science, POB 1, CS-104 01 Prague 10, Czech Republic
*Email:

ABSTRACT: A recent paper entitled ‘Resurrection of DNA function in vivo from an extinct genome’ (Pask et al. 2008; PLoS ONE 3:e2240) suggests that the return to life of extinct animals could be just around the corner. Indeed, every time a mammoth is unearthed, hot debates on the possibility of ‘resuscitating’ it take place worldwide. However, most of this on-going discussion is purely speculative, and is not backed by rigorous scientific criteria. In the present review we describe a step-by-step approach to test the functionality of nuclei collected from a non-living mammal through nuclear transplantation into enucleated oocytes.


KEY WORDS: Extinct animal · Nuclear integrity · Cloning · Embryo transfer


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Cite this article as: Loi P, Wakayama T, Saragustry J, Fulka Jr J, Ptak G (2011) Biological time machines: a realistic approach for cloning an extinct mammal. Endang Species Res 14:227-233. https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00366

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Published in ESR Vol. 14, No. 3. Online publication date: September 23, 2011
Print ISSN: 1863-5407; Online ISSN: 1613-4796
Copyright © 2011 Inter-Research.
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