Extinct frog hops back into the gene pool

In what may be considered an early Easter miracle, an extinct species of native frog has begun its rise from the dead. 

Australian scientists have grown embryos containing the revived DNA of the extinct gastric-brooding frog, the crucial first step in their attempt to bring a species back to life.

The team from the aptly named Lazarus project inserted the dead genetic material of the extinct amphibian into the donor eggs of another species of living frog, a process similar to the technique used to create the cloned sheep Dolly. The eggs continued to grow into three-day-old embryos, known as blastulas. 

frozen frog

"This is the first time this technique has been achieved for an extinct species," said one of the project scientists, conservation biologist Michael Mahony. 

While many scientists have argued it would be impossible to bring a species back from the dead like in the film Jurassic Park, the Lazarus project's breakthrough suggested the revival of extinct species was no longer the realm of science fiction. 

Over five years the team led by University of NSW palaeontologist Mike Archer painstakingly inserted DNA extracted from a frozen specimen of the bizarre gastric-brooding frog, which incubated its eggs in its stomach before giving birth through its mouth, into hundreds of donor eggs from a distant relative, the great barred frog, whose DNA had been deactivated by UV light. 

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/animals/extinct-frog-hops-back-into-the-gene-pool-20130315-2g68x.html#ixzz2OCPLO688