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A bold partnership between conservationists and geneticists aims to revive the extinct dodo and return it to its former home in Mauritius.
Colossal Biosciences, a US-based biotechnology and genetic engineering company, has partnered with the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation to find a suitable home for large flightless birds. Colossal Biosciences is pursuing the “de-extinction” of multiple species, including the woolly mammoth.
The dodo has been extinct since 1681; a combination of predation by humans and animals introduced by humans led to its downfall, turning it into a textbook case for extinction. But according to the partners, its return to Mauritius could benefit the dodos immediate environment and other species.
In January 2023, Colossal first declared its plan to bring the dodo back to life. Although it is unclear exactly when it will be able to do so, new information about its plans to recreate the species has surfaced.
Beth Shapiro, chief paleogeneticist at Colossal, has sequenced the entire genome of the dodo. Furthermore, the company reports that it has successfully sequenced the genomes of two extinct dodo relatives: the Nicobar pigeon, which lives on islands in Southeast Asia that span the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and the solitaire, an extinct relative from Rodrigues Island, near Mauritius.
Geneticists at Colossal have found cells that act as a precursor for ovaries or testes in the Nicobar pigeon can grow successfully in a chicken embryo. They are now researching to see if these cells (called primordial germ cells, or PGCs) can turn into sperm and eggs.
This is a vital step in creating hybridized animals through reproduction. Scientists have previously introduced PGCs to create a chicken fathered by a duck for which a duck embryo was injected with chicken PGCs, producing an adult duck with the sperm of a rooster. It then bred with a hen, which gave birth to a chick.
Colossal plans to go down a similar route. To find out how the genomes of the dodo and solitaire differ from those of the Nicobar pigeon, it will first compare them. Next, it will modify a Nicobar’s PGCs to express a dodo’s physical characteristics.
After that, the modified PGCs will be added to the embryos of a sterile rooster and chicken. The chicken and rooster will be able to reproduce with the introduction of the edited PGCs, and because of the hybridized pigeon DNA in their reproductive systems, their progeny should resemble dodos.
The chief animal officer of Colossal, Matt James, stated in an email that “the restored dodo will be indiscernible from what we know of the dodo’s appearance physically.”
Because “most of the technologies that we use for cloning in mammals does not exist in birds today,” James called the project “an amazing engine of innovation for avian genetics, genomics, and cell biology.” He did not, however, provide a timeframe for the creation of the first embryo.
Can the dodo really be brought back from extinction?
In 2022, Beth Shapiro from the Genomics Institute at the University of California, Santa Cruz, announced the sequencing of the dodos genome. It was sequenced from a DNA sample taken from a specimen held at Copenhagens Natural History Museum. So is this icon of extinction poised to return from the dead?
In 2022, she stated to BBC Wildlife that “a ton of current technical challenges would need to be solved in order to bring a dodo back to life.”
“First, it must be possible to identify the genetic variations in the dodo genome that give the dodo its characteristic appearance and behavior. Additionally, it would be necessary to determine how to introduce those genetic modificationsof which there are undoubtedly manyinto the kinds of cells that will eventually give rise to live animals. In birds, this would entail modifying the genes of “primordial germ cells,” or the cells that eventually develop into sperm or eggs, using gene-editing techniques. After that, all of the typical issues pertaining to raising a extinct species in captivity and providing for its needs would need to be resolved. .
Building a new home for the dodo
As the research at Colossal’s laboratory proceeds, a group at the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF) will be busy building the proverbial nest.
According to the foundation’s director of conservation, Vikash Tatayah, the MWF approached Colossal about a partnership earlier this year and is preparing a feasibility study to determine the best location for Colossal’s newborn birds.
Tatayah remarked, “Mauritius is not a big island; it is 60 kilometers by 30 kilometers.” “Buildings, villages, reservoirs, and sugar cane have already replaced a large portion of it.” .
The “most ideal site does not exist,” he continued, adding that every possible location has advantages and disadvantages, with poaching, predators, and other human interference all being factors.
One place being considered is Black River Gorges National Park, which has areas of restored forest. Two other nearby nature reserves are Round Island and the islet of Aigrettes.
He clarified that while invasive species like rats, feral cats, pigs and dogs, monkeys, mongooses, and crows may need to be “excluded, rehomed, or even controlled” on the mainland in order for Colossal’s dodo to flourish, the island and islet are not home to natural predators. However, Tatayah stated that since Round Island and Île aux Aigrettes are presently uninhabited, the foundation would prefer a location where the dodos could be seen by the general public.
He said there was a chance the dodo would be reintroduced in a few different places.
Tatayah is less worried about how the dodo will reintegrate into its environment once human factors and alien predators are under control. “I can’t see them being competitive at all because (it) was coexisting and coevolving with other birds, other plants, and reptiles,” he remarked.
As he pointed out, “mutualistic relationships which have broken down since the loss of the dodo,” there might even be incidental benefits. .
The birds large beak is an indicator that it consumed large-seeded fruits, he explained, and the dodo played a role in the seeds dispersal. Some of these plant species are threatened or highly threatened, he added, one hypothesis being that the seeds are no longer being sufficiently dispersed and primed for germination without the dodo and other extinct large species (another being the domed Mauritian giant tortoise.).
Tatayah predicted that “the dodo is going to be a big bonus for the restoration of ecosystems.”
Julian Hume, an avian paleontologist who has studied the dodo and works at London’s Natural History Museum, concurs that the bird may play a role in seed dispersal but advises caution.
Hume stated in an email that “despite being one of the most famous birds in the world, we still know virtually nothing about the dodo, so it is impossible to know how it interacted with its environment.”
“Colossal’s idea is a sound one,” he continued, but even if it were feasible, “it can only result in a dodo-esque creature because of the complexity of recreating a species from DNA.” Then, years of careful breeding will be needed to transform a tiny pigeon into a large, flightless bird. Recall that it took millions of years for the dodo to evolve in this way. .
In reference to researching the bird after it was reintroduced, Hume stated that “it would be rather naive to base any conclusions about behavior or other life-history characters (on it)” because “at best, Colossal can only produce a bird with some dodo-like qualities, and a bird that has no inherent idea of how to live in the wild,”
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