Fecal transplant is one of the new frontiers of medicine, as we had already told you here, and in recent years this method has also been experimented on different animal species, first of all the Koala.
Now an American organization called Revive & Restore is trying to approach the poop in a new way, which does not include transplants but the creation of a real “poop zoo” (so they call them!) Which could help save different species in danger of extinction.
How does the project work? The idea at the Base of Revive & Restore is simple: when an animal poops, what “Libera” is a mix of non -digested food, bacteria and bile, but also of living cells that have detached themselves from the walls of the intestine. The research of the organization, which in this project is helped by the University of Oxford and the Chester Zoo, have shown that some of these cells are still alive, even if only for a short period after the “act”.
Once recovered, these cells can be used for baptized operations of “genetic rescue”. First of all, the cells contain DNA which can be designed to identify genetic variations within different populations of the same species, a notion that can help organize more effective conservation programs.
Reprogram through poop. Even more interesting, according to Revive & Restore, is the possibility of using these cells to recreate an entire animal. The simplest method is that of cloningbut the project has even more ambitious objectives: “reprogram” the cells extracted from the poop and give them the ability to become any type of cell – including sperm and eggs.
If this method worked, the generic variability of an extinction species could therefore be increased even without the need to transport souls from one end of the world to make them mate. Finally, R&R hopes to be able to use poop cells also for genetic editing experiments, which help us “create” more resistant individuals (for example to diseases, or high temperatures) and thus preserve the species. By the way: so far, Revive & Restore has been successful with the poop of mice and elephants, but the experiments continue.
