La « dé-extinction » du mammouth laineux, un « Colossal » canular ?

Chroniques génomiques

Mammoth “de-extinction”, a “Colossal” hoax?

Biologiste, généticien et immunologiste, président d’Aprogène (Association pour la promotion de la génomique), 13007 Marseille, France

^* brjordan@orange.fr

Abstract

Reports of a mammoth cloning project on-going under George Church’s supervision appear periodically in the press. Close examination of the available evidence indicates that there is indeed such a project (carried out in a company called “Colossal”), but the aim is actually to modify the Asian elephant’s genome so that the resulting animal displays some significant cold-adaptation traits, could theoretically be reintroduced into Siberia, and would then (also theoretically) modify the biotope towards its initial state of a steppe rather than a tundra. This endeavour seems largely unfeasible, but it may trigger important methodological advances that probably explain its ability to attract significant capital investment.