NEWS & ANALYSIS
NEWS & ANALYSIS
winter weather and climb the sheerest cliffs. But hunters coveted their large, curving horns, and by 1913 the bucardo was considered extinct. That same year, however, a small population was discovered in the Ordesa Valley in the central Pyrenees; the government passed a hunting ban and declared the area a national park. The very last Pyrenean ibex, a female known in Zaragoza, Spain. “Someone cried.” The But the species never recovered. When as Celia, died in January 2000, its skull project drew little attention at the time, and Fernández-Arias took on the project in crushed by a fallen tree. But that will not the team disbanded shortly afterward because 1989, only an estimated six to 14 bucardos be the end of the imposing mountain goat, of a lack of money and support. were still alive. In 1996, two of the last if Spanish veterinarian Alberto FernándezNow, renewed interest in de-extinction in three remaining animals died, dashing all Arias has his way. Fernández-Arias is part general and a private donation have allowed hopes of recovery. “That was the hardest of a research team that has cloned cells Fernández-Arias and Folch to reassemble year,” Fernández-Arias says. But that same taken from Celia before she died and year the birth of Dolly the sheep, the implanted them in surrogate goats. first cloned mammal, brought fresh On 14 April, the researchers will perhope of a renaissance even after form an ultrasound to see if any of the extinction. Scientists captured Celia, embryos have implanted. If so, the took skin biopsies from her left ear work could lead to the world’s first and left flank, and stored them at “de-extinction” of an animal species. two laboratories. Several scientists have recently Earlier this year, the scientists developed similar plans to bring back thawed some of these cells and let extinct species, including the woolly them multiply for several days to mammoth, the passenger pigeon, prove that they were still alive. In late and a wolflike marsupial called the February, they injected the cells into thylacine (Science, 5 April 2013, goat oocytes whose nucleus had been p. 19). But the Spanish researchers removed. They then applied a short have two key advantages. While other electric current to fuse the two cells groups have to rely on ancient DNA and used a chemical called ionomycin in museum specimens, they can use to kick-start the embryo’s division. Celia’s frozen cells. And they can (The recipe was essentially the same use surviving, closely related species as the one for the 2003 attempt.) to create surrogate mothers. “It’s Cloning is high-tech work, but a terrific team and I expect them to much of Fernández-Arias’s time has be the first to cross the line,” says been spent solving other problems, Michael Archer of the University for instance working out the best of New South Wales in Sydney, strategy for surrogate motherhood, Australia, who wants to bring back using the closely related Spanish ibex Australia’s gastric brooding frog, as a stand-in for the Pyrenean ibex. famous for giving birth through its Initially, the team tried implanting mouth. “I have my fingers crossed Spanish ibex embryos in domestic that it works.” goats, but these were rejected until Fernández-Arias has been working the scientists “fooled” goats by to save the Pyrenean ibex for decades. implanting one of their own embryos While a few were still alive in the wild, as well. They finally settled on a he studied how to capture and keep the The comeback goat. The Pyrenean ibex, seen here in an illustration more accommodating surrogate— animals and help them reproduce. And from 1898, went extinct in 2000. hybrids between a domestic goat and in 2003, after Celia’s death marked the a Spanish ibex. failure of that effort, his team made a first the old team. “It has been like one of In the first week of March, after the attempt to bring back the species by cloning. these movies where all the people who are embryos had been growing in cell culture They delivered a cloned ibex by cesarean already retired are called back for a special for seven days, Folch and others implanted section, but the animal died within minutes mission,” Fernández-Arias says. embryos into several hybrids. On Monday, from a lung defect. “All of the participants Pyrenean ibexes, also called bucardos, they will perform an ultrasound to see were watching this little dead body, all were impressive creatures, much bigger than whether the embryos are developing as excited and quiet,” recalls team member José the two surviving subspecies of Spanish hoped. A pregnancy would be “only the first Folch, who led the cloning work at the Centre ibex. Perfectly adapted to their mountain step, of course,” Archer says. “Nobody will of Food Technology and Research of Aragon habitat, they were able to brave the worst start celebrating until they see what pops out C O N S E R VAT I O N B I O LO G Y
CREDIT: JOSEPH WOLF/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
www.sciencemag.org
SCIENCE
VOL 344
Published by AAAS
11 APRIL 2014
137
Downloaded from www.sciencemag.org on April 10, 2014
Can Cloning Revive Spain’s Extinct Mountain Goat?
NEWS&ANALYSIS of the other end of the goat.” In fact, even if a healthy animal is born in August, huge hurdles remain before a healthy new population roams the Pyrenees. For starters, scientists will have to create a male ibex—and they have only female cells. One possibility would be to transfer a Y chromosome from a related species, says Harvard University geneticist George Church. To create the genetic diversity an animal population may need to survive, researchers could sequence bucardo
specimens in museums and edit the DNA of cloned embryos to reflect the diversity found there, he says. The animals could then be “rewilded,” as has been done with other captive populations, such as the condor. Many conservationists worry that bringing back extinct species will weaken efforts to protect existing populations and drain money from conservation causes. But Church believes that de-extinction will be a big psychological boost. The birth of a twin Celia would be “mythical level news,” adds
biologist and conservationist Stewart Brand, the founder of a nonprofit organization that funds de-extinction work. If the effort fails and he can raise more money, Brand says he would be delighted to fund future research on the bucardo. For now, the work has an unlikely benefactor: The cloning efforts are bankrolled by the Aragon Hunting Federation, which says it now promotes conservation and is keen to see bucardos roam the Pyrenees once again. –KAI KUPFERSCHMIDT
P L A N E TA R Y S C I E N C E
NASA to Researchers: Sell Your Mission or Be Terminated
138
found a way to let still-kicking robots live on. This time is different. Funding for NASA’s Planetary Science Division has been under pressure in recent years, with the Obama administration proposing a series of cuts. For the 2015 fiscal year that begins 1 October, for instance, the White House wants to trim about 5% from the division’s $1.35 billion kitty, to $1.28 billion. Congress often rejects such proposals, and sometimes adds funding. That could be difficult this year, however, because lawmakers are operating under a relatively austere $1.102 trillion cap on discretionary federal spending. So NASA may have to find ways to fit both new and existing projects into a flat planetary sciences budget. One mission new to the senior review this year already has a strong claim on funding for an extension: the Mars Curiosity rover. NASA officials are unlikely to cut off the $60 million annually it needs to keep roving. The squeeze could force the agency, for the first time, to turn off a still capable planetary mission, or even two, unless Congress comes to the rescue. Running the gantlet No one is saying exactly why NASA singled out Opportunity and LRO for execution, but
11 APRIL 2014
VOL 344
SCIENCE
Published by AAAS
Ever more Mars? The Opportunity rover (foreground) has been leaving tracks in martian soil for a decade, but NASA funding troubles threaten its mission.
apparently the administration decided that it couldn’t afford the $35 million required to keep them alive. Congress could give them a reprieve, the White House says, by agreeing to a package of revenue-raising policy changes, known as the Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative, that could provide an additional $187.3 million for NASA science. That idea is unlikely to fly, however, so it appears that Opportunity and LRO team members are going to have to sell NASA on their ability to do new science well worth the scarce dollars. That task could be formidable. After 10 years and 36 kilometers of roving, the $400 million Opportunity rover is walking wounded. It has one bum wheel and its instrument-laden arm has a frozen shoulder joint. Its two instruments for identifying minerals are useless; team members have had to make do with a less capable sensor. (In contrast, almost everything is working wonderfully on Opportunity’s successor, Curiosity, which has the resources to roam Mars for another decade or two.) And
www.sciencemag.org
CREDIT: NASA
The robots that explore the solar system on humanity’s behalf face multiple hazards. Rockets fail, instruments break, human error kills a spacecraft. But now, NASA’s spacecraft face another mission-ending threat: the federal budget. NASA has put two long-lived but still productive planetary science missions on the budgetary chopping block, daring Congress to swing the ax. The agency is also asking researchers on other long-lived missions to explain why theirs should live on if others must die. Both the hardy and much-loved Opportunity rover—which has been exploring the watery history of early Mars since it landed in 2004—and the 5-year-old Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) were left out of the president’s fiscal year 2015 budget request released last month. Both missions, however, still have a chance to save their science. This week, proposals are due to NASA from the researchers running six major projects—including Opportunity and LRO—that have successfully completed their prime missions and are looking for a fresh piece of the NASA budget to operate for another 2 years (see graphic, 139). NASA has routinely conducted such “senior reviews” in the past, but it always
NEWS & ANALYSIS
winter weather and climb the sheerest cliffs. But hunters coveted their large, curving horns, and by 1913 the bucardo was considered extinct. That same year, however, a small population was discovered in the Ordesa Valley in the central Pyrenees; the government passed a hunting ban and declared the area a national park. The very last Pyrenean ibex, a female known in Zaragoza, Spain. “Someone cried.” The But the species never recovered. When as Celia, died in January 2000, its skull project drew little attention at the time, and Fernández-Arias took on the project in crushed by a fallen tree. But that will not the team disbanded shortly afterward because 1989, only an estimated six to 14 bucardos be the end of the imposing mountain goat, of a lack of money and support. were still alive. In 1996, two of the last if Spanish veterinarian Alberto FernándezNow, renewed interest in de-extinction in three remaining animals died, dashing all Arias has his way. Fernández-Arias is part general and a private donation have allowed hopes of recovery. “That was the hardest of a research team that has cloned cells Fernández-Arias and Folch to reassemble year,” Fernández-Arias says. But that same taken from Celia before she died and year the birth of Dolly the sheep, the implanted them in surrogate goats. first cloned mammal, brought fresh On 14 April, the researchers will perhope of a renaissance even after form an ultrasound to see if any of the extinction. Scientists captured Celia, embryos have implanted. If so, the took skin biopsies from her left ear work could lead to the world’s first and left flank, and stored them at “de-extinction” of an animal species. two laboratories. Several scientists have recently Earlier this year, the scientists developed similar plans to bring back thawed some of these cells and let extinct species, including the woolly them multiply for several days to mammoth, the passenger pigeon, prove that they were still alive. In late and a wolflike marsupial called the February, they injected the cells into thylacine (Science, 5 April 2013, goat oocytes whose nucleus had been p. 19). But the Spanish researchers removed. They then applied a short have two key advantages. While other electric current to fuse the two cells groups have to rely on ancient DNA and used a chemical called ionomycin in museum specimens, they can use to kick-start the embryo’s division. Celia’s frozen cells. And they can (The recipe was essentially the same use surviving, closely related species as the one for the 2003 attempt.) to create surrogate mothers. “It’s Cloning is high-tech work, but a terrific team and I expect them to much of Fernández-Arias’s time has be the first to cross the line,” says been spent solving other problems, Michael Archer of the University for instance working out the best of New South Wales in Sydney, strategy for surrogate motherhood, Australia, who wants to bring back using the closely related Spanish ibex Australia’s gastric brooding frog, as a stand-in for the Pyrenean ibex. famous for giving birth through its Initially, the team tried implanting mouth. “I have my fingers crossed Spanish ibex embryos in domestic that it works.” goats, but these were rejected until Fernández-Arias has been working the scientists “fooled” goats by to save the Pyrenean ibex for decades. implanting one of their own embryos While a few were still alive in the wild, as well. They finally settled on a he studied how to capture and keep the The comeback goat. The Pyrenean ibex, seen here in an illustration more accommodating surrogate— animals and help them reproduce. And from 1898, went extinct in 2000. hybrids between a domestic goat and in 2003, after Celia’s death marked the a Spanish ibex. failure of that effort, his team made a first the old team. “It has been like one of In the first week of March, after the attempt to bring back the species by cloning. these movies where all the people who are embryos had been growing in cell culture They delivered a cloned ibex by cesarean already retired are called back for a special for seven days, Folch and others implanted section, but the animal died within minutes mission,” Fernández-Arias says. embryos into several hybrids. On Monday, from a lung defect. “All of the participants Pyrenean ibexes, also called bucardos, they will perform an ultrasound to see were watching this little dead body, all were impressive creatures, much bigger than whether the embryos are developing as excited and quiet,” recalls team member José the two surviving subspecies of Spanish hoped. A pregnancy would be “only the first Folch, who led the cloning work at the Centre ibex. Perfectly adapted to their mountain step, of course,” Archer says. “Nobody will of Food Technology and Research of Aragon habitat, they were able to brave the worst start celebrating until they see what pops out C O N S E R VAT I O N B I O LO G Y
CREDIT: JOSEPH WOLF/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
www.sciencemag.org
SCIENCE
VOL 344
Published by AAAS
11 APRIL 2014
137
Downloaded from www.sciencemag.org on April 10, 2014
Can Cloning Revive Spain’s Extinct Mountain Goat?
NEWS&ANALYSIS of the other end of the goat.” In fact, even if a healthy animal is born in August, huge hurdles remain before a healthy new population roams the Pyrenees. For starters, scientists will have to create a male ibex—and they have only female cells. One possibility would be to transfer a Y chromosome from a related species, says Harvard University geneticist George Church. To create the genetic diversity an animal population may need to survive, researchers could sequence bucardo
specimens in museums and edit the DNA of cloned embryos to reflect the diversity found there, he says. The animals could then be “rewilded,” as has been done with other captive populations, such as the condor. Many conservationists worry that bringing back extinct species will weaken efforts to protect existing populations and drain money from conservation causes. But Church believes that de-extinction will be a big psychological boost. The birth of a twin Celia would be “mythical level news,” adds
biologist and conservationist Stewart Brand, the founder of a nonprofit organization that funds de-extinction work. If the effort fails and he can raise more money, Brand says he would be delighted to fund future research on the bucardo. For now, the work has an unlikely benefactor: The cloning efforts are bankrolled by the Aragon Hunting Federation, which says it now promotes conservation and is keen to see bucardos roam the Pyrenees once again. –KAI KUPFERSCHMIDT
P L A N E TA R Y S C I E N C E
NASA to Researchers: Sell Your Mission or Be Terminated
138
found a way to let still-kicking robots live on. This time is different. Funding for NASA’s Planetary Science Division has been under pressure in recent years, with the Obama administration proposing a series of cuts. For the 2015 fiscal year that begins 1 October, for instance, the White House wants to trim about 5% from the division’s $1.35 billion kitty, to $1.28 billion. Congress often rejects such proposals, and sometimes adds funding. That could be difficult this year, however, because lawmakers are operating under a relatively austere $1.102 trillion cap on discretionary federal spending. So NASA may have to find ways to fit both new and existing projects into a flat planetary sciences budget. One mission new to the senior review this year already has a strong claim on funding for an extension: the Mars Curiosity rover. NASA officials are unlikely to cut off the $60 million annually it needs to keep roving. The squeeze could force the agency, for the first time, to turn off a still capable planetary mission, or even two, unless Congress comes to the rescue. Running the gantlet No one is saying exactly why NASA singled out Opportunity and LRO for execution, but
11 APRIL 2014
VOL 344
SCIENCE
Published by AAAS
Ever more Mars? The Opportunity rover (foreground) has been leaving tracks in martian soil for a decade, but NASA funding troubles threaten its mission.
apparently the administration decided that it couldn’t afford the $35 million required to keep them alive. Congress could give them a reprieve, the White House says, by agreeing to a package of revenue-raising policy changes, known as the Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative, that could provide an additional $187.3 million for NASA science. That idea is unlikely to fly, however, so it appears that Opportunity and LRO team members are going to have to sell NASA on their ability to do new science well worth the scarce dollars. That task could be formidable. After 10 years and 36 kilometers of roving, the $400 million Opportunity rover is walking wounded. It has one bum wheel and its instrument-laden arm has a frozen shoulder joint. Its two instruments for identifying minerals are useless; team members have had to make do with a less capable sensor. (In contrast, almost everything is working wonderfully on Opportunity’s successor, Curiosity, which has the resources to roam Mars for another decade or two.) And
www.sciencemag.org
CREDIT: NASA
The robots that explore the solar system on humanity’s behalf face multiple hazards. Rockets fail, instruments break, human error kills a spacecraft. But now, NASA’s spacecraft face another mission-ending threat: the federal budget. NASA has put two long-lived but still productive planetary science missions on the budgetary chopping block, daring Congress to swing the ax. The agency is also asking researchers on other long-lived missions to explain why theirs should live on if others must die. Both the hardy and much-loved Opportunity rover—which has been exploring the watery history of early Mars since it landed in 2004—and the 5-year-old Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) were left out of the president’s fiscal year 2015 budget request released last month. Both missions, however, still have a chance to save their science. This week, proposals are due to NASA from the researchers running six major projects—including Opportunity and LRO—that have successfully completed their prime missions and are looking for a fresh piece of the NASA budget to operate for another 2 years (see graphic, 139). NASA has routinely conducted such “senior reviews” in the past, but it always
