Posted on 07/10/2018 12:21:58 PM PDT by ETL
For the first time, rhinoceros embryos have been made in the lab. Scientists injected preserved sperm from a male northern white rhino into eggs of female southern white rhinos, a closely related subspecies. The embryos were incubated until the cells begin to differentiate, a stage at which they can be implanted into a surrogate mother, researchers report July 4 in Nature Communications.
The new feat is “one of the really crucial steps” to eventually producing new rhino calves, says study coauthor Jan Stejskal, coordinator of northern white rhino conservation efforts at the Safari Park Dvůr Králové in the Czech Republic.
Eventually, researchers hope to implant similar embryos into female southern white rhinos or hybrid northern-southern white rhinos.
If it works, it could provide hope for bringing back a species on the brink of extinction. Sudan, the last male northern white rhino, died in March. Only two females remain in Kenya, both in captivity and unable to reproduce naturally. In comparison, there are more than 20,000 southern white rhinos left.
In the new study, the scientists used eggs from female southern white rhinos and sperm preserved from three male northern white rhinos.
While the new embryos are a hybridized northern-southern white rhino mix, the ability to create them is “a saving mechanism for the genes of the northern white rhinos,” says study coauthor Thomas Hildebrandt, a reproduction biologist at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
So, if it is a hybrid species is that really saving the species?
Have they tried implanting the embryos in humans?
If only white rinos really were engangered ...
I guess it's the best they can do, at least at this time.
You mean female RINOs?
Not to sound (too) heartless, but who, besides Researchers is affected in any way if the White Rino goes extinct?
One day, our own species will also draw the drapes.
The entire country would be affected if White "Rinos" went extinct. And, may I add, for the better. (you did spell it "Rino") :)
But seriously, since it wouldn't be a "natural" extinction, but rather the result of human activities, I can see how it might upset some people.
A declining gene pool due to isolation leads to inbreeding-and the extinction of species from low fertility/birth rates time after time-maybe the fertilization of the southern white rino eggs by adding northern white rino sperm will increase that gene pool and allow the species to recover-that type of fertilization has been done successfully with cheetahs in areas where terrain, park borders, etc limit their travel to find un-related mates-and their numbers are increasing-maybe it will work for the rinos, too...
Lol! I didn’t even catch that freudian slip; RINO vs Rhino.
You can tell what was on my mind.
As to the American White Rino, maybe that species could be confined to mating in its already-limited gene pool in DC-fertility would decline, and as long as no one imported any Rino subspecies of any type for mating, that species might become extinct-and it’s a good thing...
Lol!
Frog DNA?
We have too many white RINOs.
Yes, with mixed results.
Good point. Perhaps they can categorize the animal a "White Rhinoceros In Name Only" (WRINO).
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