時差N小時:科學(xué)家找出長毛象基因組上取得重大進(jìn)展

Scientists say they have reconstructed aroundhalf of the genome of the woolly mammoth, aspecies that became extinct at the end of the lastIce Age some 11,000 years ago.The sequencecomes from DNA in hair snipped from two woollymammoths whose bodies have been preserved inSiberian permafrost for tens of thousands of years.Important gaps in the picture remain, but even so,enough data is there to make a comparisonbetween the woolly mammoth and its closest livingrelative, the elephant, they said.

科學(xué)家們說他們已經(jīng)對長毛象的半數(shù)基因組重新進(jìn)行組合。長毛象在冰河世紀(jì)末期，也就是一萬一千年以前就開始滅絕。基因組序來源于兩只長毛象身上剪下的毛發(fā)。這兩只長毛象遺體保存在西伯利亞永久凍土地帶已有數(shù)萬年。 科學(xué)家們說，基因組序里有重要的遺漏，即使是如此，仍有足夠的數(shù)據(jù)將長毛象和其近親大象進(jìn)行對比。

The two species are so similar that their DNA differs by just 0.6 percent, or about half thedifferences between humans and chimps. The team made a first breakthrough last year byusing mammoth hair to extract mitochondrial DNA, genetic material that is inherited from thefemale line. The hair technique marks a giant's step forward compared to the previousmethod, which consisted of teasing DNA out of the remains of frozen bone marrow.

長毛象和大象很相似，它們基因的差別只有百分之0.6，這個數(shù)字差不多是人類與黑猩猩基因差別的一半。 在去年這個團(tuán)隊通過從長毛象毛發(fā)中提取線粒狀基因研究獲得了第一次突破。這種線粒狀基因物質(zhì)是從雌性鏈體上遺傳下來的。 相比之前的方法，這種從毛發(fā)里提取基因的技術(shù)標(biāo)志著一大進(jìn)步。這一技術(shù)包括梳理重組冰凍的長毛象骨頭里的DNA。

Rebuilding the mammoth's genetic code has fired speculation that scientists may oneday revive this species and other Ice Age beasts on the lines of the Hollywood movie "JurassicPark." Researchers say it should one day be theoretically possible to replicate a mammoth bytaking the elephant's genome, stripping out the code that is specific to the elephant andreplacing it with code specific to the mammoth.

重組長毛象的基因密碼引發(fā)了一種猜測，科學(xué)家可能在某一天使長毛象和其他冰河時代的動物蘇醒，就像上映的電影“侏羅紀(jì)公園” 那樣。研究者還說，理論上可以通過提取大象的基因，剝離特定的大象基因密碼，注入特定的長毛象基因密碼來復(fù)制長毛象，這一天有可能會到來。