For the first time, scientists have extracted and analyzed RNA from an extinct animal preserved at room temperature in a museum collection.
The genomic molecules belonged to a thylacine (also known as a Tasmanian tiger or Tasmanian wolf) that died about 130 years ago.
The research appears in the journal Genome Research.
Thylacines were striped, dog-sized, apex-predator marsupials hunted to extinction due to European colonial bounties.
The last one died in a zoo in 1936.
Researchers have analyzed DNA from extinct animals, but attempts at RNA analysis have met with less success and involved fauna preserved in permafrost.
While DNA provides a creature’s genetic blueprint, RNA reveals how genes respond to its environment and needs, and can reveal RNA viruses.
The findings could hold implications for the de-extinction movement and for understanding gene expression in extinct species.
