Scientists attempting to resurrect the woolly mammoth believe they are just two years away from creating a hybrid embryo.
If they succeed it will mark a turning point in plans to haul the ancient beast back from extinction by programming its key traits into an Asian elephant.
The bundle of cells would have genes for mammoth features such as shaggy long hair, thick layers of fat, and cold-adapted blood.
However, years more work lie ahead before any serious attempt can be made to produce a living creature.
The US scientists have ambitious plans to grow it within an artificial womb rather than recruit a female elephant as a surrogate mother.
Since starting the project in 2015 the researchers have increased the number of “edits” where mammoth DNA has been spliced into the elephant genome from 15 to 45.
Professor George Church, who heads the Harvard University team, said: “We’re working on ways to evaluate the impact of all these edits and basically trying to establish embryogenesis in the lab.
“The list of edits affects things that contribute to the success of elephants in cold environments.
“We already know about ones to do with small ears, sub-cutaneous fat, hair and blood, but there are others that seem to be positively selected.”
The woolly mammoth roamed across Europe, Asia, Africa and North America during the last Ice Age and vanished some 4,500 years ago, probably due to a combination of climate change and hunting by humans.
Their closest living relative is the Asian, not the African, elephant.
“De-extincting” the mammoth has become a realistic prospect because of revolutionary gene editing techniques that allow the precise selection and insertion of DNA from specimens frozen over millennia in Siberian ice.
The scientists intend to engineer elephant skin cells to produce the embryo, or multiple embryos, using cloning techniques. Nuclei from the reprogrammed cells would be placed into elephant egg cells whose own genetic material has been removed. The eggs would then be artificially stimulated to develop into embryos.
Woolly mammoths could help prevent tundra permafrost from melting and releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. “They keep the tundra from thawing by punching through snow and allowing cold air to come in,” said Prof Church. “In the summer they knock down trees and help the grass grow.”
Prof Church predicts that age-reversal will become a reality within 10 years as a result of the new developments in genetic engineering.
