{"id":46348,"date":"2023-03-28T15:09:08","date_gmt":"2023-03-28T15:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/?p=46348"},"modified":"2023-03-28T15:37:14","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T15:37:14","slug":"meatballs-made-with-mammoth-dna-created-by-australian-food-startup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peymantaeidi.net\/stem-cell\/2023\/03\/28\/meatballs-made-with-mammoth-dna-created-by-australian-food-startup\/","title":{"rendered":"Meatballs made with mammoth DNA created by Australian food startup"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Sign up for CNN\u2019s Wonder Theory science newsletter. <\/em>Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more<\/em><\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

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\n <\/span>
\n CNN<\/span>
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\n Now, some of that information is being used to grow an approximation of mammoth meat in a lab.\n <\/p>\n

\n Vow<\/a>, an Australian cultured meat startup, has made what it describes as a mammoth meatball. The project\u2019s <\/strong>goal, according to the company, is to draw attention to the potential of cultured meat to make eating habits more planet friendly. On Tuesday, the meatball will join the collection at Rijksmuseum Boerhaave<\/a> \u2014 a museum of science and medicine in the Netherlands.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe need to start rethinking how we get our food. My biggest hope for this project is \u2026 that a lot more people across the world begin to hear about cultured meat,\u201d said James Ryall, Vow\u2019s chief scientific officer.\n <\/p>\n

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\n \"An<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Creating \u2018mammoth meat\u2019
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\n A wonderfully wacky publicity stunt, the meatballs aren\u2019t intended for human consumption. Even calling the creation mammoth meat is a bit of a stretch. It\u2019s more like lab-made lamb <\/strong>mingled with a tiny amount of mammoth DNA.\n <\/p>\n

\n Scientists working on the project didn\u2019t have access to a frozen stash of mammoth tissue on which to base their efforts. Instead, they focused on a protein present in mammals called myoglobin that gives meat its texture, color and taste, identifying the DNA sequence for the mammoth version in a publicly available genome database.\n <\/p>\n

\n They filled in gaps in the mammoth myoglobin DNA sequence using information from the genome of an African elephant. The scientists inserted the synthesized gene into a sheep muscle cell, which was then cultured, or grown, in a lab.\n <\/p>\n

\n The team was eventually able to produce about 400 grams of mammoth meat.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cFrom a genomic point of view, it\u2019s only one gene amongst all the other sheep genes that is mammoth,\u201d said Ernst Wolvetang, a professor and senior group leader at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology at the University of Queensland, who was part of the project. \u201cIt\u2019s one gene out of 25,000.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Ryall said the mammoth myoglobin did change the physical appearance of the sheep muscle cells. Though our Stone Age ancestors hunted and presumably feasted on mammoth, Ryall and Wolvetang both said they had not tasted the meatballs.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cNormally, we would taste our products and play around with them. But we were hesitant to immediately try and taste because we\u2019re talking about a protein that hasn\u2019t existed for 5,000 years. I\u2019ve got no idea what the potential allergenicity might be of this particular protein,\u201d Ryall said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThat\u2019s one of the reasons why we\u2019re not offering this as a product. It\u2019s not going to go up for sale, because we\u2019ve got no idea about the safety profile of this particular product,\u201d he added.\n <\/p>\n

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\n \"James<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n Cultured vs. the real thing
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Advocates hope cultured meat will reduce the need to slaughter animals for food and help fight the climate crisis. The food system is responsible for about a third of global greenhouse gas emissions<\/a>, most of which result from animal agriculture.\n <\/p>\n

\n Vow hopes to soon get regulatory approval in Singapore, the first country to approve cultured meat<\/a>, to sell lab-made quail meat it has developed. In the United States, the FDA has said that lab-grown chicken is OK for human consumption.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

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\n \"The<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n The carcasses of mammoths, which went extinct about 5,000 years ago<\/a>, have been found so well preserved in permafrost, they still had blood in their veins<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n Love Dal\u00e9n, a professor of evolutionary genomics at Stockholm University\u2019s Centre for Paleogenetics who sequenced the world\u2019s oldest mammoth DNA<\/a>, knows what mammoth meat actually tastes like.\n <\/p>\n

\n During a field trip to the Yana River in Siberia in 2012, Dal\u00e9n said he tried a small piece of frozen meat taken from partial carcass of a baby mammoth. While he said couldn\u2019t see great scientific value in the meatball project, were they to ever go on sale, Dal\u00e9n said he would definitely taste one.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWithout doubt I would love to try this!\u201d he said. \u201cIt cannot possibly taste worse than real mammoth meat.\u201d <\/strong>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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\n Woolly mammoth remains, with fur and tissue still in tact, are regularly found entombed in Arctic permafrost<\/a>. Their discovery has allowed scientists to sequence the mammoth genome and learn intriguing details about the lives of these extinct Ice Age giants.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n