Woolly mammoth cells brought back to life in shocking scientific achievement

The headline, shockingly enough, is a tad overblown. The cells weren’t brought back to life, but “showed signs of biological activity” after nuclei were transferred into mouse cells. The DNA, as might be expected, was chopped to bits by freezing and the passage of time, but cells can continue to survive- at least for a while – even if the DNA is trashed. However, trashed DNA does not replicate, so more work will need to be done before a living mammoth can be cloned.

From the actual report:

The 28,000-year-old remains of a woolly mammoth, named ‘Yuka’, were found in Siberian permafrost. Here we recovered the less-damaged nucleus-like structures from the remains and visualised their dynamics in living mouse oocytes after nuclear transfer. Proteomic analyses demonstrated the presence of nuclear components in the remains. Nucleus-like structures found in the tissue homogenate were histone- and lamin-positive by immunostaining. In the reconstructed oocytes, the mammoth nuclei showed the spindle assembly, histone incorporation and partial nuclear formation; however, the full activation of nuclei for cleavage was not confirmed. DNA damage levels, which varied among the nuclei, were comparable to those of frozen-thawed mouse sperm and were reduced in some reconstructed oocytes. Our work provides a platform to evaluate the biological activities of nuclei in extinct animal species.