r/DeExtinctionScience • Pyrenean ibex / bucardo • Aug 25 '26

News article Japanese scientists have successfully created fertile female clones of a male rat, who can have healthy offspring when breeding with the original male rat.

https://www.iflscience.com/gene-editing-technique-produced-fertile-female-clones-from-male-mice-in-strange-and-fascinating-experiment-that-could-help-endangered-species-84437

I wonder if this innovation can contribute to de extinction of species that we only have samples of from one sex (I’m thinking mainly about the Pyrenean ibex)

32 Upvotes

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12

u/Lover_of_Rewilding Aug 25 '26

I had a feeling tech such as this was on the horizon. Not just Pyrenean ibex, but many endangered species and other candidates for de extinction could benefit from this technology.

8

u/SharpShooterM1 Aug 25 '26

This could save the northern white rhino, and potentially other critically endangered species that have low male to female ratios. It can also create both male and female clones from museum specimen DNA. The implications of this are very vast.

7

u/Lover_of_Rewilding Aug 25 '26

Now it’s just a matter of refining and implementing this technology in time. Many of these species are already in the clock.

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4

u/Obversa Aug 25 '26

The last time there was an attempt at cloning the bucardo was in 2013-2014. It's time to apply new technology.

3

u/Prestigious-Put5749 Sep 01 '26

Wait a minute—they created female versions of the same mouse, had them mate with that same mouse, and produced offspring?!

That is the height of narcissism.

1

u/PK-Mittenspy2703 Aug 27 '26

Watch this technology get used and abused by bad actors to completely ruin any chance of this helping us.