Tasmanian tiger specimen utilized in the research study and protected in desiccation at room temperature level in the Swedish National History Museum in Stockholm.” Credit: Emilio Mármol Sánchez (photo) and Panagiotis Kalogeropoulos (modifying).
A recent research study successfully isolated and sequenced century-old RNA molecules from a Tasmanian tiger specimen protected at space temperature in a museum collection. This achievement marked the first-ever restoration of skin and skeletal muscle transcriptomes from an extinct types. The research group highlights that these discoveries hold significance for international efforts aimed at restoring extinct species, such as the Tasmanian tiger and the woolly mammoth, and for research on pandemic RNA infections.
Marc R. Friedländer. Credit: Niklas Norberg Wirtén/ SciLifeLab.
The Tasmanian tiger, likewise referred to as the thylacine, was an amazing peak carnivorous marsupial that was as soon as dispersed all across the Australian continent and the island of Tasmania. This amazing species found its final death after European colonization, when it was declared as a farming bug, and a bounty of ₤ 1 per each full-grown animal killed was set by 1888. The last known living Tasmanian tiger died in captivity in 1936 at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, Tasmania.
Current efforts in de-extinction have actually concentrated on the Tasmanian tiger, as its natural habitat in Tasmania is still mostly preserved, and its reintroduction might assist recover past ecosystem stabilities lost after its last disappearance. Nevertheless, rebuilding a functional living Tasmanian tiger not just needs a detailed knowledge of its genome (DNA) but also of tissue-specific gene expression characteristics and how gene guideline worked, which are just achievable by studying its transcriptome (RNA).
A recent study successfully isolated and sequenced century-old RNA particles from a Tasmanian tiger specimen protected at space temperature in a museum collection. The research team highlights that these discoveries hold significance for global efforts aimed at restoring extinct species, such as the Tasmanian tiger and the woolly mammoth, and for research on pandemic RNA viruses.
The Tasmanian tiger, also known as the thylacine, was an exceptional apex meat-eating marsupial that was once dispersed all across the Australian continent and the island of Tasmania. The last recognized living Tasmanian tiger passed away in captivity in 1936 at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, Tasmania.
” Resurrecting the Tasmanian tiger or the woolly massive is not an insignificant task, and will require a deep knowledge of both the genome and transcriptome policy of such prominent types, something that just now is beginning to be exposed,” says Emilio Mármol, the lead author of a study recently released in the Genome Research journal by researchers at SciLifeLab in cooperation with the Centre for Palaeogenetics *, a joint venture between the Swedish Museum of Natural History and Stockholm University.
RNA molecules recuperated from the Tasmanian tiger.
The researchers behind this research study have actually sequenced, for the first time, the transcriptome of the skin and skeletal muscle tissues from a 130-year-old desiccated Tasmanian tiger specimen preserved at space temperature in the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. This resulted in the identification of tissue-specific gene expression signatures that resemble those from living extant marsupial and placental mammals.
The recuperated transcriptomes were of such great quality that it was possible to determine muscle- and skin-specific protein-coding RNAs, and led to the annotation of missing out on ribosomal RNA and microRNA genes, the latter following MirGeneDB recommendations.
Love Dalén. Credit: Sören Andersson.
” This is the very first time that we have had a glimpse into the presence of thylacine-specific regulatory genes, such as microRNAs, that got extinct more than one century ago,” says Marc R. Friedländer, Associate Professor at the Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner-Gren Institute at Stockholm University and SciLifeLab.
This pioneering research study opens new amazing chances and implications for checking out the vast collections of specimens and tissues kept at museums around the world, where RNA particles may wait for to be uncovered and sequenced.
” In the future, we may have the ability to recuperate RNA not only from extinct animals but likewise RNA virus genomes such as SARS-CoV2 and their evolutionary precursors from the skins of bats and other host organisms held in museum collections”, states Love Dalén, Professor of evolutionary genomics at Stockholm University and the Centre for Palaeogenetics.
The authors of the research study state they are thrilled for future holistic research advancements integrating both genomics and transcriptomics towards a new era in palaeogenetics beyond DNA.
Recommendation: “Historical RNA expression profiles from the extinct Tasmanian tiger” by Emilio Marmol-Sanchez, Bastian Fromm, Nikolay Oskolkov, Zoe Pochon, Panagiotis Kalogeropoulos, Eli Eriksson, Inna Biryukova, Vaishnovi Sekar, Erik Ersmark, Bjorn Andersson, Love Dalen and Marc Friedlander, 18 July 2023, Genome Research.DOI: 10.1101/ gr.277663.123.