Ancient Cave Bear DNA Extracted and Decoded

diamond writes "The BBC reports that 'scientists have extracted and decoded the DNA of a cave bear that died 40,000 years ago.' The sequencing technique could also work for Neanderthals. However, 'the idea of obtaining DNA from dinosaurs, depicted in the film Jurassic Park, remains science fiction.' Also reported by Nature Magazine."

Comments

Anything is possible

[Capt'n Hector]

Never say we won't get DNA from dinosaurs. Just recently some scientists uncoverered a dinosaur bone that wasn't completely fossilized: it was so big that they couldn't transport it, so they cut it in half and found actual flesh in the center! I couldn't find it on google news in 5 seconds, but does anybody else remember this? I think there was a reason they couldn't extract any DNA from this guy, but stranger things have happened. Of course, DNA an entire being does not make, so we won't be able to actually make a living breathing dinosaur but we all know what would happen if we did!

Re:Anything is possible

[Fortyseven]

Here's a couple updates on that.

Role of mitochondria and cytoplasm

[G4from128k]

If this is going to work, scientists will need copies of both the DNA in the nucleus AND mitochondria (and ways to synthesize the nucleus and mitochondria of the target organism). Implanting a neanderthal nucleus in a human (or any other) kind of egg will not necessarily create a pure neanderthal clone (we might even need to clone the cytoplasmic contents). A study of cloning fish across species boundaries showed that some very basic physical characteristics (e.g., the number of vertebra in the backbone) were controlled by the mitochondria or cytoplasm of the egg, not by the genes in the nucleus.

It's amazing that they can reconstruct the DNA of long-dead creatures but its also clear that nuclear DNA is not the only information-carrying object in biological organisms.

unless they're all thumbs...

[moviepig.com]

...scientists have extracted and decoded the DNA of a cave bear that died 40,000 years ago.' The sequencing technique could also work for Neanderthals.

Why would Neanderthals want to build a cave bear?

Re:What A Shame!

[Rei]

These puns are getting so bad that I can hardly bear them anymore.

Re:What A Shame!

[Rei]

Expression of the code depends too much on proteins that go with the cell

So, what you're saying is... they didn't quite extract the bear necessities?

didn't they find t. rex soft tissue recently?

[circletimessquare]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/03/science/03dinosa ur.html

now if you tell me that dna will degrade over 70 million years and be unrecoverable, then i will believe you

but if you also tell me that they can recover soft tissue with capillaries and cells visible from 70 million years ago, i wouldn't believe you

but that's what they did

so now i don't know what to believe... isn't some sort of t. rex dna recovery possible after all then? granted, it would be fragmented, but if we are talking dessicated soft tissue, can't the fragments be recovered in some sort of context that might make reconstruction possible?

Re:didn't they find t. rex soft tissue recently?

[Rei]

There may be hundreds of thousands of types of biomolecules in your average cell. DNA is one of the less stable among them. Finding the more stable molecules isn't that big of a deal; it's the less stable ones that we want.

Re:What A Shame!

[fimbulvetr]

We're bearly even scratching the surface!