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Name: Allyson
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Question:
Could cloning be used to save a species from going extinct?


Replies:
We were just watching a video about the Hawaiian nay-nay (goose) and how its genetic diversity is so low that it can't adapt to its environment anymore. They checked its DNA with some 200 year old nay-nays that had been preserved at the Smithsonian Institute. Their DNA was more diverse than those of today. One of my students asked why they couldn't take that DNA and clone it and insert it into an egg of a modern nay-nay and see if new chicks could hatch with the old DNA. Would this work? I don't know but it is an intriguing idea.

Van Hoeck


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