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NEFU and Siberian Federal University to cooperate in mapping on the mammoth genome

  • 14 November 2014
  • 1532

NEFU and Siberian Federal University to cooperate in mapping on the mammoth genome

The representatives of the Mammoth Museum Laboratory of NEFU Institute of Applied Ecology of the North and Genomic Research Center of Siberian Federal University signed a cooperation agreement in order to decipher the genome of Malolyakhovsky mammoth at the IV All-Russian Festival of Science "Siberia - the territory of science and education" in Krasnoyarsk.

During the conference, researcher of the NEFU IAEN Mammoth Museum Laboratory Maksim Cheprasov pointed that good preservation of the Malolyakhovsky mammoth soft tissues because it lay in the pure ice. Such state of the mammoth carcass, according to the researchers, makes possible to clone this ancient animal. For these purposes, biotechnology laboratory for the study of fossil animal cells was created jointly with the Korean Sooam Foundation on the base of NEFU Mammoth Museum named after P.A. Lazarev. Research work on the mammoth living cells search in the laboratory will begin in 2015.

According to NEFU Institute of Applied Ecology of the North, the search of living cells is the most important and difficult step of cloning. If it succeeds, then the cloning procedure itself will be held in the Republic of Korea, where experts of Sooam Foundation have extensive experience in the cloning of animals, especially dogs.

Reference:

Malolyahovsky mammoth was discovered on Lyakhovsky Islands of Novosibirsk archipelago by tusks collectors in August 2012. The first studies and preparation of the mammoth carcass were held at NEFU in March 2014.

Photo from Siberian Federal University website

Author: Andrey LUPANOV, NEFU Newsroom

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