Scientists have sequenced the genome of the woolly mammoth, and now a cultured meat startup has used the extinct mammal’s DNA to create a giant meatball. The company is touting it as a more sustainable alternative to real meat–but are people ready to eat extinct animals?
Lab-grown meat gets a “mammoth” boost
For years now, scientists have been trying to convince the public that meat grown in a laboratory is a less environmentally damaging, and more sustainable alternative method of creating edible protein then raising livestock.
To prove a point and garner attention in a memorable way, Vow, an Australian cultured meat startup, created a giant meatball to show off what’s possible.
“We wanted to create something that was totally different from anything you can get now,” Vow co-founder Tim Noakesmith told Reuters.
There are numerous cultured meat companies around the world now competing to create a range of substitutes for beef, chicken, pork, fish, steak, and meat-based pet foods.
Vow’s chief scientific officer James Ryall said the process involved was “much like they do in the movie Jurassic Park,” but stressed the biggest difference was they were not creating actual animals. The company also said the meat was not actually created for consumption yet.
Company used sheep, mammoth, and elephant DNA to create the meatball
The company used DNA from extinct woolly mammoths to develop a massive mammoth meatball. (See more on woolly mammoth DNA and efforts to revive the species below).
Vow says the meatball was made of sheep cells that had been inserted with a singular mammoth gene called myoglobin.
“When it comes to meat, myoglobin is responsible for the aroma, the color and the taste,” said Ryall.
The meatball is said to have the aroma of crocodile meat.
The company also said the mammoth DNA sequence they obtained had a few gaps, so African elephant DNA was inserted to complete it.
Noakesmith added that an additional reason for choosing mammoth is that scientists believe that the animal’s extinction was caused by climate change, Al Jazeera reported.
Noakesmith warned: “We face a similar fate if we don’t do things differently.”
Using DNA to re-create a species
Unlike the dinosaurs, the complete remains of woolly mammoths, with all their fur and tissue still intact, are regularly found perfectly frozen, entombed in arctic permafrost, CNN reported.
Back in 2008, scientists were able to extract woolly mammoth DNA and begin sequencing their genome, according to Science Daily. In 2015, the genome sequence was completed, BBC reported.
In 2021, a group led by a Harvard University genetics professor, backed with $15 million in funding, began the work of trying to bring back the woolly mammoth from extinction using a gene-editing tool known as CRISPER-Cas9, NPR reported.
