![]() “Najin and Fatu are also closely related and their genetic makeup is largely identical. The plan is to implant these embryos into southern white rhino surrogate mothers soon in the hope that healthy northern white rhino calves will emerge. These cells were matured at laboratories in Italy and inseminated with thawed sperm from a dead male rhino.Īs a result, there are now 14 northern white rhino embryos stored in liquid nitrogen at extremely low temperatures. Notably, scientists have just collected oocytes, or immature egg cells, from Fatu in Kenya. Because primordial germ cells mature into egg cells only when surrounded by ovarian tissue, this was an important advance.Īt the same time, other teams of scientists are working on assisted reproduction techniques for the rhinos and advances have been made on that front as well. In another development, scientists working to produce primordial germ cells iPS cells managed to cultivated ovarian tissue from mouse stem cells last year. This teaches us a lot about evolution,” Zywitza says. “For example, we can study why the gestation period of a rhinoceros is 16 months whereas that of a mouse is only 21 days, or how organs develop in different species. However, studying these cells is helping scientists better understand the molecular mechanisms inside stem cells. This means we can’t use them to make germ cells, as there is a risk these would be pathologically altered,” explains Vera Zywitza, a researcher at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association who was the lead author of a paper on the findings. “The iPS cells we have cultivated contain persistent foreign genetic material - namely, the reprogramming factors and the gene that prevents cell death. Northern white rhinos in Africa have been poached into near-extinction. Despite those promising results with mice, however, scientists have encountered some hurdles with rhino cells. The mice conceived this way were born healthy and fertile in a landmark success. Katsuhiko Hayashi, a Japanese stem cell researcher at Kyushu University who in 2016 managed to generate egg cells from the skin of mice, fertilize these cells artificially, and implant them in females. The BioRescue project, a German initiative of which the research is part, is building on the work of Prof. ![]() ![]() These cells, like stem cells, have the ability to develop into any cell of the body and so rhino oocytes could soon be generated artificially from them. ![]() In a major milestone, scientists from Germany, the Netherlands and Japan have succeeded in examining pluripotent rhino stem cells in depth. In one method being explored scientists are seeking to use skin cells from the animals to create induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) in the lab and turn these cells into immature egg cells called oocytes. The race is on, however, by international teams of scientists to harness the benefits of modern science and help the rhinos have a fighting chance of survival through cutting-edge advances in the lab. This means that the critically endangered subspecies can no longer reproduce naturally and so extinction for the rhinos is looming with each passing day. The world’s last two northern white rhinos, Fatu and Najin, are both female. Best Practices Natural preservation Wildlife
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