Bio 100 Biological Issue Assignment: Cloning

Imagine you're back in 3rd grade.  You're learning about a wide array of prehistoric animals.  All this talk of Sabre Tooth Tigers and Mastodons is vaguely interesting to you, but your little 3rd grade brain is having a hard time connecting to the past.  'I wish I knew what they were really like,' you think, 'instead of only looking at these out-of-date textbooks.' 

Your melancholy 3rd grade thoughts are then interrupted by your teacher informing you that the class is going on a field trip to the zoo.  So, you climb on your school bus - the one that hasn't had a tune-up since the mid 70's - and drive off.  At the zoo, your teacher leads you towards an exhibit entitled "Prehistoric Beasts".  'What could be in there?' you think.  You enter.  Your eyes widen.  You are surrounded by the living and breathing reincarnations of the creatures you were studying but a short time earlier.  Mammoths mill.  Sabre-tooths saunter.  Glyptodons glisten.  Your little 3rd grade mind is completely blown.

This story may be closer to becoming a reality than you think.  In a recent National Geographic article entitled "Recipe for Resurrection", author Tom Mueller writes that scientists specializing in ancient DNA have come surprisingly close to completing the genetic sequence of a Woolly Mammoth.  Once they achieve this, a feat the same scientists claim is only a matter of time, they could conceivably clone a real live Woolly Mammoth.

This prospect is inviting.  It would help us learn a lot about the history of the earth if we could study its ancient inhabitants up close and personal.  Not to mention all the merchandising revenue.  However, one must ask the question: Even though it would be interesting, is cloning ancient animals the right thing to do?  After all, it didn't turn out so well last time...

Mueller states that critics of the 'cloning ancient animals' idea believe that since these animals went extinct because of natural causes, they should not be resurrected.  They were weeded out through natural selection, not by any man-made causes.  Critics go on to state that even if we bring these animals back, they would have no place to go.  Their natural habitats and ecosystems have long since been destroyed.  They are destined to become nothing but curios.  So, perhaps resurrecting long dead species isn't the best idea after all.

"I could have told you that!"

However, there is another possible outlet for this technology.  There are numerous plant and animal species on our earth right now that are in danger of going extinct.  There are also many species that have only recently gone extinct. 

 Some Facts:

• 41,415 species are now classified as threatened or endangered.  This includes plant and animas species
• One in four mammals, one in eight birds, one third of all amphibians and 70% of the world's plants are in jeapordy
• There are 65 species in the world that are only found in captivity
• It is estimated that in the last 500 years, human activity has forced over 800 species into extinction.

If only they would stop smoking.

 Don't worry endangered animals!  CLONING CAN HELP!  In 2009, scientist successfully cloned a Pyrenean Ibex, a species that had gone extinct in 2000.  The Ibex only lived for a short time due to lung complications, but it's a start!  This example proves that cloning technology can someday be used to revive recently extinct species.  It can also be used to preserve endangered animal and plant species that are essential in the continuation of their respective ecosystems.  There are already several international groups that keep banks of frozen tissues and cell lines, hoping that these can someday provide the material needed to replenish declining populations. 

Even though the mammoth should probably be kept in the past, that doesn't mean we shouldn't use the technology available to us to preserve our present and protect our future.





 The first two images are from Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park 3, respectively.  I couldn't tell you where the third image is from.

Holt, Wiliiam V., Amanda R. Pickard, and Randall S. Prather. "Wildlife Conservation and Reproductive Cloning." Reproduction 2004. ISI Web of Knowledge. Web. 12 Sept. 2010.

Mueller, Tom. "Recipe for a Resurrection." National Geographic May 2009. Web.

 

Pina-Aguilar, Raul E., Janet Lopez-Saucedo, Richard Sheffield, Lilia I. Ruiz-Galaz, Jose Barroso-Padilla, and Antonio Guitierrez-Guitierrez. "Revival of Extinct Species Using Nuclear Transfer: Hope for the Mammoth, True for the Pyrenean Ibex, But Is It Time for "Conservation Cloning''?" Cloning and Stem Cells 11.3 (2009): 341-46. ISI Web of Knowledge. Web. 12 Sept. 2010.