IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v456y2008i7220d10.1038_nature07446.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sequencing the nuclear genome of the extinct woolly mammoth

Author

Listed:
  • Webb Miller

    (Pennsylvania State University, Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, 310 Wartik Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA)

  • Daniela I. Drautz

    (Pennsylvania State University, Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, 310 Wartik Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA)

  • Aakrosh Ratan

    (Pennsylvania State University, Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, 310 Wartik Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA)

  • Barbara Pusey

    (Pennsylvania State University, Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, 310 Wartik Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA)

  • Ji Qi

    (Pennsylvania State University, Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, 310 Wartik Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA)

  • Arthur M. Lesk

    (Pennsylvania State University, Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, 310 Wartik Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA)

  • Lynn P. Tomsho

    (Pennsylvania State University, Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, 310 Wartik Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA)

  • Michael D. Packard

    (Pennsylvania State University, Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, 310 Wartik Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA)

  • Fangqing Zhao

    (Pennsylvania State University, Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, 310 Wartik Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA)

  • Andrei Sher

    (Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian Academy of Sciences, 33 Leninsky Prospect, 119071 Moscow, Russia)

  • Alexei Tikhonov

    (Zoological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Universitetskaya Naberezhnaya 1)

  • Brian Raney

    (Center for Biomolecular Science and Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA)

  • Nick Patterson

    (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 7 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA)

  • Kerstin Lindblad-Toh

    (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 7 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA)

  • Eric S. Lander

    (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, 7 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA)

  • James R. Knight

    (454 Life Sciences, 20 Commercial Street, Branford, Connecticut 06405, USA)

  • Gerard P. Irzyk

    (454 Life Sciences, 20 Commercial Street, Branford, Connecticut 06405, USA)

  • Karin M. Fredrikson

    (Roche Diagnostics Corporation, 9115 Hague Road, Indianapolis, Indiana 46250-0414, USA)

  • Timothy T. Harkins

    (Roche Diagnostics Corporation, 9115 Hague Road, Indianapolis, Indiana 46250-0414, USA)

  • Sharon Sheridan

    (Roche Diagnostics Corporation, 9115 Hague Road, Indianapolis, Indiana 46250-0414, USA)

  • Tom Pringle

    (Sperling Foundation, Eugene, Oregon 97405, USA)

  • Stephan C. Schuster

    (Pennsylvania State University, Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, 310 Wartik Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA)

Abstract

Palaeogenes: mammoth task Ancient DNA isolated from fossils and tissue preserved in permafrost has long held a fascination. Though broken up into small scraps and all-but swamped by modern microbial DNA, its sequences have provided glimpses of extinct life forms. Now the same massively parallel synthetic DNA sequencing technologies that are bringing the personal genomics revolution have revolutionized the field of ancient DNA too. The first report of the sequencing of the nearly complete nuclear genome of an extinct animal — the woolly mammoth — appears in this issue. Comparison of the woolly mammoth genome with that of the African elephant show that unexpectedly, both genomes are likely to be at least 40% larger than those of the fully sequence placental mammals. The recent PNAS paper on the cloning of mice from bodies stored in a freezer for 16 years prompted news reports that the cloning of mammoths was imminent. How likely is that? Henry Nicholls asks the question and concludes that for now, it is still fantasy. But that is what cloning mammals was just 15 years ago. Watch this space, but be patient.

Suggested Citation

  • Webb Miller & Daniela I. Drautz & Aakrosh Ratan & Barbara Pusey & Ji Qi & Arthur M. Lesk & Lynn P. Tomsho & Michael D. Packard & Fangqing Zhao & Andrei Sher & Alexei Tikhonov & Brian Raney & Nick Patt, 2008. "Sequencing the nuclear genome of the extinct woolly mammoth," Nature, Nature, vol. 456(7220), pages 387-390, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:456:y:2008:i:7220:d:10.1038_nature07446
    DOI: 10.1038/nature07446
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/nature07446
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/nature07446?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. B J Morrison McKay & Clare Sansom, 2009. "Webb Miller and Trey Ideker To Receive Top International Bioinformatics Awards for 2009 from the International Society for Computational Biology," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(4), pages 1-4, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:456:y:2008:i:7220:d:10.1038_nature07446. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.