RNA Recovered From Extinct Species 'Tasmanian Tiger' For the First Time

(Photo : JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP via Getty Images) A dry specimen of a Tasmanian tiger is pictured at the Museum of Natural History in Stockholm, on September 26, 2023. Scientists have for the first time recovered RNA from an extinct species, the Tasmanian tiger, raising hope for the resurrection of animals once thought lost forever, Stockholm University researchers told AFP.

A new study was able to successfully sequence and isolate age-old RNA from an extinct Tasmanian tiger specimen that was kept in a museum collection.

RNA Recovered From Tasmanian Tiger

This endeavor serves as the first reconstruction of the skeletal muscle and skin transcriptomes from a species that is extinct. The researchers stress that these efforts are globally important for further initiatives that are geared towards extinct species revival, including the wooly mammoth and Tasmanian tiger. It may also help with research on global RNA viruses.

Tasmanian tigers, also referred to as the thylacines, were apex carnivorous marsupials that used to live in Tasmania island and across the continent of Australia. The species reached its demise post-colonization of Europe as it was declared to be an agricultural pest. In fact, in 1888, there was a £1 bounty issued for each full-grown animal that was killed

The last known thylacine died in 1936 at Beaumaris Zoo in Tasmania.

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De-Extinction Efforts

De-extinction efforts have focused on the Tasmanian tiger because of the remarkable preservation of its natural home in Tasmania. Reintroducing the species can also aid with recovering the lost equilibrium of earlier ecosystems.

However, the reconstruction and de-extinction of the Tasmanian tiger require comprehensive DNA knowledge and also gene expression dynamics and regulation mechanisms that are specific to certain tissues. This can only be achieved by examining the creature's RNA.

Now, for the first time, the study authors were able to sequence the skin and skeletal muscle tissue's transcriptome belonging to a 130-year-old preserved Tasmanian tiger. Doing so enabled them to identify the tissue-specific signatures of gene expressions that mirror living placental and extant marsupial mammals.

The RNA they recovered had remarkable quality. In fact, it was even possible to pinpoint skin- and muscle-specific RNAs. This led to missing microRNA and ribosomal RNA gene annotation.

Associate professor Marc R. Friedländer from the Department of Molecular Biosciences, the Wenner-Gren Institute at SciLifeLab and Stockholm University, explains that this is the first time that they were able to obtain a glimpse of thylacine-specific genes, including microRNAs, that became extinct over a hundred years ago.

The study leads to doors for exploring the tissues and specimens kept in global museum collections. These specimens could hold molecules of RNA that are just waiting to be found.

Evolutionary genomic professor Love Dalén from Stockholm University explains that in the future, it may be possible to find RNA not just from extinct species but also from RNA virus genomes and their precursors.

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