{"id":151654,"date":"2025-09-18T01:47:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T01:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/151654\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T01:47:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T01:47:08","slug":"pivotal-step-announced-in-effort-to-bring-back-the-dodo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/151654\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Pivotal step\u2019 announced in effort to bring back the dodo"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n A plan to genetically engineer a version of the dodo, a giant flightless bird<\/a> that disappeared 400 years ago and became the poster child for extinction, has made some headway, according to Texas-based biotechnology firm Colossal Biosciences.\n <\/p>\n

\n The company\u2019s scientists said they have succeeded in culturing specialized cells from the rock dove \u2014 better known as the humble pigeon. They plan to use the same or similar techniques to culture cells from the dodo\u2019s closest living relative, the Nicobar pigeon, which is from the same family of birds.\n <\/p>\n

\n Colossal is years away from its long-term goal of creating a living, walking approximation of the dodo that would be indistinguishable from its extinct forerunner, but it described the advance as a \u201cpivotal step.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThis is the really important step for the dodo project, but also for bird conservation, more broadly,\u201d said Beth Shapiro, Colossal\u2019s chief science officer. \u201cThis was a negating step for the dodo project. We needed this in order to move on, and now that we have it, really, we\u2019re off and running.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n The company sparked excitement, as well as controversy, when it announced the birth of three dire wolf pups<\/a> in April. Colossal scientists said they had resurrected the canine predator last seen 10,000 years ago by using ancient DNA, cloning and gene-editing technology to alter the genetic makeup of the gray wolf, in a process the company calls de-extinction. Similar efforts to bring back the woolly mammoth, the thylacine \u2014 better known as the Tasmanian tiger \u2014 and another flightless bird, the moa, are also underway.\n <\/p>\n

\n Colossal also announced Wednesday that it had raised $120 million in additional funding for its work for a total of $555 million since launching in September 2021.\n <\/p>\n

\n However, the techniques necessary to bring back a bird such as the dodo are different from those the company used to create dire wolves because birds develop in an egg and can\u2019t be cloned in the same way as mammals, making the process more challenging.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cSo with birds, the slowest part of this process is that we have to make two generations. We can\u2019t clone the cells, so we have to make moms and the dads separately and then breed them in order to get both copies of the gene to be modified,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cThat is pretty slow.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Scientists<\/p>\n

\n Colossal\u2019s Wednesday announcement revealed its scientists have figured out a way to grow a vital type of cell, known as a primordial germ cell, which acts as a precursor of egg and sperm cells, from the rock dove (Columba livia), better known as the common pigeon that lives in cities around the world.\n <\/p>\n

\n The company said it focused on the rock pigeon because the bird is widely bred and distantly related to the dodo. Scientists have previously been able to culture primordial germ cells, or PGCs, of chickens and geese, a technique that has been used to create a chicken fathered by a duck<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe first cell culture recipe was for chicken PGCs, and was published nearly 20 years ago,\u201d Anna Keyte, Colossal\u2019s avian species director, said in a news release.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cUnfortunately, that recipe has not worked on any other bird species tested, even closely related species like quail. Colossal\u2019s discovery of a recipe for pigeons dramatically expands avian reproductive technologies and is the foundation for our dodo work.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The team tested more than 300 recipes before happening on the right combination of growth factors, molecules and metabolites that allowed the pigeon germ cells to grow for 60 days. Details of the research, which hasn\u2019t yet been peer-reviewed, were published Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n

\n Shapiro said the next steps would be to attempt to use the cells to create live rock pigeons birthed by a surrogate chicken, as a proof of concept.\n <\/p>\n

\n At the same time, Colossal is using a similar culture to grow the primordial germ cells of the Nicobar pigeon, which is more closely related to the dodo. The company noted that it has established a breeding colony of the birds in Texas and begun to collect primordial germ cells.\n <\/p>\n

\n Beyond that, Colossal would need to be able to edit the germ cells of the Nicobar pigeon with dodo traits, based on genomic information about the extinct bird preserved in museum specimens. Then scientists would inject the edited Nicobar pigeon PGCs into the embryos of regular chickens \u2014 roosters and hens \u2014 that have been genetically modified not to make their own germ cells. Chickens are preferable to pigeons as surrogates because as flightless birds they are easier to keep and because scientists already know how to genetically engineer them to be sterile, the company said, making them more suitable to the task.\n <\/p>\n

\n The ultimate goal is that the edited Nicobar pigeon PGCs will continue to develop into functional eggs and sperm, and when the offspring of those modified roosters and hens hatch, the resulting chicks\u2019 eggs and sperms cells will contain the Dodo-like genetic traits.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cTogether, these advances \u2014 pigeon PGC culture and gene-edited chickens that do not make their own PGCs \u2014 set the stage for using surrogate chickens to help bring back dodo relatives, and eventually the dodo itself,\u201d the company said in a statement.\n <\/p>\n

\n That whole process will take at least five to seven years, said Ben Lamm, the company\u2019s CEO.\n <\/p>\n

\"Common<\/p>\n

\n Critics say that while Colossal\u2019s researchers are advancing the field of genetic engineering, it\u2019s not truly possible to resurrect an extinct animal \u2014 any attempt could only create a genetically modified, hybrid species. Suggesting otherwise risks undermining the urgency of protecting existing species and ecosystems, according to conservationists.\n <\/p>\n

\n The company has said its aim is not to bring back something that\u2019s 100% genetically identical to an extinct species but to create functional copies with key traits.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cDodos belonged to the pigeon and dove family. So, to the extent that dodos shared many genes in common with the Nicobar pigeon, in theory it would mean the scientists only have to insert the dodo-unique genes into the germ cell, or edit the pigeon genes to make them dodo-like. This could produce a dodo-like bird,\u201d said Scott MacDougall-Shackleton, cofounder and director of the Advanced Facility for Avian Research at Western University in London, Ontario.\n <\/p>\n

\n However, he said it is impossible to bring back extinct species, as these animals were far more than a set of genes. \u201cDuring development our genome interacts with parental genomes, hormones and the environment such that genes are turned on or off in complex ways that we cannot know and cannot repeat for an extinct species,\u201d he noted.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cAlthough it is impressive genetic engineering to insert genes from extinct species into a current species, it is hyperbole to call it de-extinction.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The new technology developed by Colossal has valuable potential applications in avian conservation, particularly in areas where existing bird populations have little genetic variation, according to Cock van Oosterhout, a professor of evolutionary genetics at the University of East Anglia\u2019s School of Environmental Sciences in the United Kingdom. For van Oosterhout, however, the real utility is not in resurrecting the dodo, but in applying the company\u2019s findings to help species recover.\n <\/p>\n

\n Modifying the genes of endangered species could help them adapt better to declining habitats or diseases that pose a threat, said van Oosterhout, who has received a donation from Colossal for his work on the endangered pink pigeon.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cCan we now find the resistant variant, maybe in an historic sample, or maybe in a very closely related species that we know is resistant to a particular pathogen, and can we edit this back into the general population?\u201d van Oosterhout asked.\n <\/p>\n

\n Colossal\u2019s \u201cJurassic Park-style flamboyant science\u201d attracts funders with deep pockets who wouldn\u2019t ordinarily be interested in biodiversity conservation, allowing the company to solve problems that have long eluded many academic researchers, van Oosterhout added.\n <\/p>\n

\n However, genome editing is just one small piece of a much larger puzzle that is complex to solve, he said. \u201cWhat we need to do as a society is really prevent extinction, prevent habitat loss. Technology can\u2019t solve the biodiversity crisis. It might save a few species, but it\u2019s not a magic bullet.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Sign up for CNN\u2019s Wonder Theory science newsletter<\/a>. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook Tweet Email Link A plan to genetically engineer a version of the dodo, a giant flightless bird…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-151654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}