ClONING MAMMOTHS BY SONG YE WON
Have you seen the movie“ Jurassic Park? In it, scientists extract the DNA of a dinosaur from a fossilized fy embedded in amber. With tremendous effort, they succeeded in cloning dinosaurs which had gone extinct a long time ago. Cloning means to replicate DNA. For example, if you clone yourself, someone who looks completely the same as you and has the same DNA will be born. In short, cloning mammoths, which had already gone extinct, means to revive mammoths.
Then how can experts clone mammoths? There are two methods: The frst one is somatic cell nuclear transfer. This method is used in cloning animals. Most mammoths died in cold areas like Siberia, so some of them have been well preserved( they look just like they are alive). First, remove the nucleus from a somatic cell of a mammoth and remove the nucleus of an Asian elephant. Next, put the mammoth nucleus in the elephant somatic cell. Lastly, transplant it to a surrogate and stimulate the fertilized egg. The born baby will have the traits of both the mammoth and the Asian elephant.
The second method is genetic scissors: Scientists are trying to correct 1,400,000 genes of Asian elephants with genetic scissors in order to make a mammoth.
Cloning mammoths is very important because it can bring mammoths back from extinction. These days, people realize the signifcance of biodiversity so if we succeed in cloning mammoths, we have a chance to revive other extinct animals.
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