The Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, was hunted nearly to extinction. Now RNA extracted from a museum specimen reveals how its cells functioned.
. But such investigations were all focused on DNA. Only RNA can reveal how an organism’s cells actually functioned, says Emilio Mármol-Sánchez, a geneticist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. “You see the real biology of the cell.”
The team collected six small samples of skin and muscle from the desiccated animal. Back in the laboratory, the researchers ground each sample into a powder and added chemicals that isolated nucleotides, the building blocks of RNA. Next, the team used a computer algorithm to compare those strings of nucleotides, or sequences, with a database containing the genomes of thousands of animals, plants, fungi, bacteria and viruses — including the thylacine.
Their analysis revealed different protein-coding RNA molecules in their skin and muscle samples. That makes sense, Mármol-Sánchez says. “Muscle cells and skin cells serve quite different functions in the body.” For instance, the researchers pinpointed RNA molecules that coded cells to make slow-twitch muscle fiber, which helps with endurance.
These are impressive results, says Andrew Pask, a developmental biologist at the University of Melbourne in Australia who was not involved in the research. Many researchers never even look for RNA, he says. “It’s much less stable than DNA.” And the findings are doubly impressive given that the specimen was stored at room temperature, Pask says, rather than in sterile or frozen conditions. “It’s transformed the way that we look at museum and archive specimens.
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