It all started with a 20,000 year-old mammoth hairball found under the ice in Siberia.
From the DNA sample contained in the hair, Professor Stephan Schuster and a team of researchers were able to recreate the DNA genome of the prehistoric mammal.
Genomicist Stephan Schuster says the work in some ways is like time travel, with researchers able to look at well-preserved DNA samples from decades or centuries ago to work out how DNA genomes have changed over time.
"What we are doing - using genetic genomic tools - is that we are mapping populations through time," he said.
"So in a way the museum samples, but also the fossil work, gives you the chance to go back in time and find out what different animal populations were like at a given point in time."
What emerged from the project was an understanding of how genetic diversity in populations could be used to prevent the extinction of animal species.
He has used that finding to work out how the endangered Tasmanian Devil can be saved.
The professor from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore is visiting Australia to collaborate with Australian colleagues at the University of Western Australia.
Once well-populated across Australia, the Tasmanian Devil can now only be found in parts of Tasmania. Their numbers have been wiped out by up to 90 per cent over the last decade due to the effects of a deadly facial tumour disease.
Professor Schuster says he is optimistic about the survival chances of the Tasmanian Devil under the breeding programs that have been developed with a knowledge of the DNA genome.
"Everything that needs to be done is already underway. I think it is important that the breeding programs are done in many different places. Zoos historically have been very good sites," he said.
"In the worst instance, you would need to wait for the disease to kill all the devils in the wild. Then you would wait for certain safety periods and then afterwards you can repopulate the environment with animals from the breeding programs."
"The key for that is that you maintain the remaining genetic diversity in the breeding cohort. To make sure this is the case, you need the genetic work and the genomic work."
Professor Schuster says there are already examples of where research teams and conservationists have succeeded in reviving animal populations.
He points to the success of boosting the Californian Condor bird population, which numbered 16 in the mid-1980s but grew to 420 in January this year. He says half of the 420 now live in the wild due in large part to a breeding program informed by genetic work.
"It is clear that if humans do the right thing at the right time, then we can pass on a lot of the genetic diversity to future generations. This is possible to do," he said.
"We need to maintain habitats but we also need to make sure that in times of crisis, genomics are informing breeding efforts to maintain animals that we will want to release back out into the wild."
He says the same research can also be used to conserve other animals on the brink of extinction.
"The Tasmanian Devil is very iconic, but we shouldn't forget about other endangered animals. Australia has to maintain the absolutely incredible biodiversity that is only found on this continent."
Humans can also benefit from the research, he said.
The genome of Archbishop Desmond Tutu has also come under Professor Schuster's microscope.
"I think the mantra from our research is that diversity is good. We should cherish diversity not only for the flora and fauna out there. We should also cherish diversity in human populations because whenever we build genetic constructs that lead to people being very, very similar they are prone to disease.
"We have known this for a long time from breeding livestock, but we also know this from human populations. And if we're smart about it and educate ourselves about genetics, genomics we do the right things to have a healthy and thriving population."
He says the controversial use and study of eugenics in the past underlines the need to maintain genetic diversity in populations.
"The lesson from the first half twentieth century is that people have given this a very negative spin; and a lot of this has been in a very racist connotation. But what is wrong that, and what they haven't seen in central Europe is that there has been a lot of diversity from people migrating. For example, East to West migrations for the last 2,000 years in Europe have been very large.
"People are now migrating north, south. So there is always population movement, they're mixing with one another and we can see that this is a good thing because otherwise the populations don't have enough genetic diversity to sustain for a long time."
As for bringing back the mammoth, Professor Schuster says it is feasible but not necessarily desirable.
He estimates bringing back the mammoth would cost $20 million and take 10 years to do.
"It would be like making a circus attraction."
"It is a queston of how much effort and money you want to put into it. A lot of people are very critical of that, saying that it is so expensive and what is the point of reviving extinct species if the money is much better spent on preserving the environment? I would say that the majority of scientists clearly favour the latter. Let's maintain the endangered species so they will not go extinct."
Share
