cloning tassie tigers

[jeffa]

Hi all, Just wondering what everyones thoughts are on cloning these guys? Has it been done? Should it be done? Are scientists doing it?
I would be so excited to see these guys in the flesh.
I know that there was a lot of hype several years ago of the possibility of cloning these guys and bringing them back to establish a breeding colony from several different dna samples, (but would this be enough) to prevent inbreeding?

BTW I have done a search from the archives but I have failed to find any details regarding peoples opinions. Sorry if this thread has been done.

Thoughts anyone?

[PAF]

I was just about to post something very similar..

Since the Dingo and Thylacine lived side by side for many thousands of years, do you think it is possible that they interbred and some Dingos have Thylacine DNA in them and could be back bred?

I know that one is a Canine and the other is a Marsupial but it is possible that 2 animals can breed even if they have a different number of chromosomes but the % of pregnancies is very low. The % is slightly better if the animal with the smaller amount of chromosomes is the male.

Dingos, Wolves, Dogs, Coyotes and all Canines have 78 chromosomes and Marsupials range from between 10 and 24, although scientists that have studied Thylacine DNA believe that they have somewhere between 30 and 80.

Assuming that Thylacines have 55 (in the middle of 30 and 80), then a male Thylacine could have impregnated a female Dingo.

PS. I am aware that most crossbred offspring are infertile, although Dingos and Thylacines have spent at least 3,500 years together and in all those years there could have been at least one hybrid line created that carried on some DNA until today (although it would now be very diluted)

Some scientists should get to work

[Darwinist]

Sorry PAF, but marsupials (Thylacine) and placentals (dog) are evolutionary just too far apart.

A gene (or maybe just a part of a gene), retrieved by the Thylacine cloning project, has been transplanted into a mouse embryo genome though, and was functional - but that´s a whole different story.

[jeffa]

Probly not PAf.
Hey Darwinist any updates you would like to share?
I Had heard several years ago that if a female microchiped TT was released into the wilds of Sw Tassie there was some sort of garantee of a pregency? Always the optimist of an ëxtinct species".
Can anyone update on cloning updates if any?

[Mike Williams]

Probly not PAf.
Hey Darwinist any updates you would like to share?
I Had heard several years ago that if a female microchiped TT was released into the wilds of Sw Tassie there was some sort of garantee of a pregency? Always the optimist of an ëxtinct species".
Can anyone update on cloning updates if any?

http://museumvictoria.com.au/scidiscove ... loning.asp

[jeffa]

Thanks for that Mike.

What a shame, too many ifs.