—a feat that may not only help conserve the endangered species, but also aid efforts to bring long-extinct woolly mammoths back to life. Although induced pluripotent stem cells have been made from the cells of various mammals, including threatened species. Ultimately, the researchers succeeded by combining methods used in other species to revert elephants’ skin cells to an embryoniclike state, the team reports in a 6 March biorXiv preprint, which has yet to undergo peer review.
The scientists say they plan to use the four cell lines they’ve created to test run the genetic adjustments needed to tweak the genome of an Asian elephant to wind up with something very similar to a woolly mammoth. Other experts say the achievement could shed light on elephant biology and provide a road map of sorts for generating iPSCs for other endangered species.