Context: Geneticists and conservationists have joined forces to re-introduce the Dodo, extinct since the late 17th century.
About Dodo
- It is a flightless birds that primarily inhabited the island of Mauritius.
- Listed as extinct on IUCN Red List of species.
- The lifespan of a Dodo bird was 10 to 30 years.
- It was a large, plump bird covered in soft, grey feathers, with a plume of white at its tail.
- It had small wings that were far too weak to ever lift the dodo off the ground.
- The dodo's legs were short and stubby and yellow in colour.
- The closest living relative of the dodo bird is the Nicobar pigeon, lives on the ground.
- Initially, the Dodo's extinction was attributed to human overhunting, but recent research indicates that a combination of human actions and the introduction of animals like dogs, pigs, cats, rats, and macaques led to habitat destruction and nesting ground loss for the Dodo.
Genetic reintroduction of Dodo using Genetic engineering
- Genetic engineering company Colossal Biosciences and Mauritian Wildlife Foundation are planning using genetic engineering and repopulate the Dodo’s in the island of Mauritius. Colossal Biosciences has sequenced the entire genome of dodo using DNA extracted from a skull in the collection of Natural History Museum of Denmark.
- Scientists have found the primordial germ cells (PGCs) of Nicobar Pigeon (Dodo’s closest living relative). PGCs are basically embryonic precursors of a species sperm and egg. Nicorbar’s PGCs will be edited to express the physical traits of dodo. These edited PGCs will be then inserted into embryos of a sterile chicken and rooster, who will act as interspecies surrogates.