How woolly mammoths could return to the Arctic

1

Genome extracted from frozen woolly mammoth specimens and compared with Asian elephant genomes to reveal mammoth-specific genes

Mammoth

Elephant

Genome

Skin

cell

2

Skin cells from Asian elephants are edited to carry mammoth genes

Nucleus

edited

3

Nucleus

replaced

An egg is created in the lab from stem cells. Its nucleus is then replaced with the nucleus from the skin cell containing the mammoth DNA

Egg

4

The egg is stimulated to start it dividing and carried to term either in a surrogate elephant mother or potentially in an artificial womb

Mammoth

Elephant

1

2

Genome

Genome

Genome extracted from frozen woolly mammoth specimens and compared with Asian elephant genomes to reveal mammoth-specific genes

Skin cells from Asian elephants are edited to carry mammoth genes

Skin cell

Nucleus edited

3

An egg is created in the lab from stem cells. Its nucleus is then replaced with the nucleus from the skin cell containing the mammoth DNA

Egg

Nucleus replaced

4

The egg is stimulated to start it dividing and carried to term either in a surrogate elephant mother or potentially in an artificial womb