Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com - @BednarChuck DNA from mammoths found in Arctic permafrost has been inserted into the genes of modern-day elephants, bringing the extinct mammal one step closer to roaming the Earth once again. According to The Sunday Times, Harvard University genetics professor George Church and his colleagues took 14 genes from a well-preserved mammoth specimen and integrated them into an elephant, where they functioned as normal DNA. Those genes, which were for traits that separated mammoths and elephants (such as hair and ear size) were replicated and inserted into the elephant using a precision-editing technique known as Crispr, which allowed them to replace sections of elephant DNA with mammoth genes. [STORY: Dogs may have helped early man hunt mammoths] “We prioritized genes associated with cold resistance including hairiness, ear size, subcutaneous fat and, especially, hemoglobin [the blood molecule that carries oxygen around the body],” he explained.
Read more about FINALLY: Mammoth genes inserted into elephant DNA
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