Elephant egg, and what taxonomy.....

[ricardo]

This looks so interesting that I forwarding this message to other
taxonomers.
Regards
Richard

Mouse Grows Elephant Egg in Test

.c The Associated Press

By RICK CALLAHAN

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- In a medical feat that sounds like something dreamed up
by Dr. Seuss, scientists have coaxed a mouse into growing an elephant egg.

The technique could someday be used to help save some of the world's
endangered species. Mice could be used as factories to produce eggs of other
species; the eggs could then be fertilized and used to impregnate the
endangered animals.

Purdue University researcher John Critser led a team that transplanted
ovarian
tissue from African elephants into lab mice that had been bred so that their
bodies wouldn't reject foreign tissue.

Several of the mice developed egg-producing follicles and one contained a
mature -- though misshapen -- egg. Critser's team did not use it to try to
impregnate an elephant, figuring the egg was not healthy enough to produce a
successful pregnancy.

The elephant egg posed no size problem for the mice because the eggs of both
species are microscopic.

``It's a very important step, but it's clearly going to be a long time
before
anyone is going to make an elephant out of this,'' said Randall Prather, a
professor of animal science at the University of Missouri at Columbia.

Scientists previously managed to grow egg follicles in lab mice using
ovarian
tissue from sheep and a few other species, but they didn't look to see
whether
the mice had produced eggs, Critser said.

Critser said he believes this is the first time tissue from an endangered
species has produced an egg in the mice.

Critser said he took the ovarian tissue from the carcasses of three freshly
killed elephants he came upon during a visit to South Africa. The tissue was
frozen, then thawed a year later and transplanted into the mice, which are
commonly used in biomedical research.

The findings were reported in the October issue of the journal Animal
Reproduction Science.

The experiment shows that rather than stocking animal tissue banks with
hard-
to-obtain eggs and embryos, it would be far easier to collect ovary tissue
and
use it to grow eggs in other species, Critser said.

Critser said the technique could also help cancer patients who want to get
pregnant someday but are about to undergo fertility-destroying radiation and
chemotherapy. Doctors could remove their ovary tissue, freeze it and then
return it to their bodies if they beat the disease.

He is now working to fine-tune the freezing, thawing and transplant process
to
ensure that the mice produce a steady supply of healthy eggs.

The experiment shows that such material can remain on ice for a long time
and
still be usable, said Dr. Betsy Dresser, senior vice president of the
Audubon
Institute in New Orleans, which maintains a bank of about 500 samples of
sperm, eggs and embryos from endangered species such as gorillas, rhinos and
antelopes

Keep care and be of good cheer.

Regards

Vratislav Richard Eugene Maria John Baptiste
of Bejsak (Bayshark)-Collorado-Mansfeld

Coleoptera - Australia, Tenebrionidae of World
(incl. Lagriinae, Alleculinae)

Temporally home address:
32 Girrawheen Ave.
Kiama NSW 2533
Australia
e-mail: vratislav at bigfoot.com
           ricardo at ans.com.au
           (before Ricardo at compuserve.com
             and    ricardo at login.cz )

Only after the last tree has been cut down,
only after the last river has been poisoned,
only after the last fish has been caught,
only then will you find that money can not be eaten.'
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