时差N小时 科学家找出长毛象基因组上取得重大进展（在线收听）

Scientists say they have reconstructed around half of the genome of the woolly mammoth, a species that became extinct at the end of the last Ice Age some 11,000 years ago.The sequence comes from DNA in hair snipped from two woolly mammoths whose bodies have been preserved in Siberian permafrost for tens of thousands of years. Important gaps in the picture remain, but even so, enough data is there to make a comparison between the woolly mammoth and its closest living relative, the elephant, they said.

科学家们说他们已经对长毛象的半数基因组重新进行组合。长毛象在冰河世纪末期，也就是一万一千年以前就开始灭绝。基因组序来源于两只长毛象身上剪下的毛发。这两只长毛象遗体保存在西伯利亚永久冻土地带已有数万年。 科学家们说，基因组序里有重要的遗漏，即使是如此，仍有足够的数据将长毛象和其近亲大象进行对比。

The two species are so similar that their DNA differs by just 0.6 percent, or about half the differences between humans and chimps. The team made a first breakthrough last year by using mammoth hair to extract mitochondrial DNA, genetic material that is inherited from the female line. The hair technique marks a giant's step forward compared to the previous method, which consisted of teasing DNA out of the remains of frozen bone marrow.

长毛象和大象很相似，它们基因的差别只有百分之0.6，这个数字差不多是人类与黑猩猩基因差别的一半。 在去年这个团队通过从长毛象毛发中提取线粒状基因研究获得了第一次突破。这种线粒状基因物质是从雌性链体上遗传下来的。 相比之前的方法，这种从毛发里提取基因的技术标志着一大进步。这一技术包括梳理重组冰冻的长毛象骨头里的DNA。

Rebuilding the mammoth's genetic code has fired speculation that scientists may one day revive this species and other Ice Age beasts on the lines of the Hollywood movie "Jurassic Park." Researchers say it should one day be theoretically possible to replicate a mammoth by taking the elephant's genome, stripping out the code that is specific to the elephant and replacing it with code specific to the mammoth.

重组长毛象的基因密码引发了一种猜测，科学家可能在某一天使长毛象和其他冰河时代的动物苏醒，就像上映的电影“侏罗纪公园” 那样。研究者还说，理论上可以通过提取大象的基因，剥离特定的大象基因密码，注入特定的长毛象基因密码来复制长毛象，这一天有可能会到来。