A portion of the genetic code of the mammoth has been reconstructed and, to the surprise of scientists, the team that carried out the feat believes that it will be possible to decode the entire genetic make-up. ... So far, around 30 million "letters" of the genetic code have been read, albeit in small pieces, representing around 1 per cent of the entire code. The team says it could take as little as a year to finish the estimated 2.8 billion-letter code that provides the genetic wherewithal to create the animal. Dr Stephan Schuster of Pennsylvania State University, one of the team that published the new work in the journal Science, said on Monday that it may also be possible to genetically alter an elephant to turn it into a mammoth.

Source: The Age

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