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The study was led by Dr. Marc R. Friedl\u00e4nder at Stockholm University<\/a> in Sweden, with support from nearby research centers. <\/p>\n His work focuses on RNA biology and gene regulation in cells, especially the tiny regulators that shape development.<\/p>\n RNA usually breaks apart faster than DNA<\/a>, so most old samples lose their transcriptome, the full set of RNA messages from those tissues.<\/p>\n Dry storage can slow the chemical reactions that chew up RNA, and museum skins sometimes hold more than expected.<\/p>\n A 2019 paper<\/a> showed RNA can survive in permafrost and old wolf skins long enough to retain tissue signals.<\/p>\n Thylacine, RNA, and tissue<\/p>\n The thylacine was a marsupial predator with a pouch that vanished after intense hunting and habitat loss.<\/p>\n On September 7, 1936, the last known thylacine died at Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, according to the National Museum of Australia record<\/a>.<\/p>\n That specimen sat dried at room temperature in a Swedish museum, and it provided skin and muscle tissue for sequencing.<\/p>\n To avoid modern contamination, the team worked in clean rooms built for ancient molecules and tracked possible human handling.<\/p>\n Proving the RNA was from a thylacine<\/p>\n How could anyone be sure this RNA<\/a> came from a thylacine and not from a modern contaminant?<\/p>\n Most reads matched the thylacine genome, and human sequences appeared at lower levels that fit typical museum handling.<\/p>\n They also used metatranscriptomics, which is a way of scanning all RNA to identify species and microbes, to separate thylacine fragments from contaminants.<\/p>\n Chemical scars, called deamination, damage that changes one RNA letter into another, rose near fragment ends as expected.<\/p>\n Reading gene activity in muscle<\/p>\n In muscle, the strongest signals came from genes tied to contraction and energy use, including the huge protein titin.<\/p>\n The RNA<\/a> profile pointed to slow muscle fibers, which fit the location where researchers took tissue from near the shoulder blade.<\/p>\n They also detected messages involved in oxygen storage and fuel recycling, hints about how those cells worked when alive.<\/p>\n Even with millions of fragments, the team captured only a small slice of the full muscle transcriptome, so rare signals stayed quiet.<\/p>\n RNA and thylacine skin samples<\/p>\n Skin samples carried many RNA fragments from keratin genes, matching the tough outer layer that protects animals from wear.<\/p>\n Two skin sections also contained hemoglobin RNA, a sign of blood left in the tissue when the specimen was prepared.<\/p>\n Because skin sits on the outside, it can pick up microbes later, yet thylacine reads still dominated the data.<\/p>\n When the team compared these profiles with living marsupials and dogs, skin looked like skin and muscle looked like muscle.<\/p>\n MicroRNAs: The small regulators<\/p>\n MicroRNAs<\/a>, short RNAs that tune how much protein a gene makes, often run about 22 building blocks long.<\/p>\n RNA evidence also confirmed a thylacine-specific microRNA form, showing how gene regulation can differ even between close relatives.<\/p>\n These small regulators varied sharply between skin and muscle, giving another check that the sequences came from the right tissues.<\/p>\n Fixing the thylacine genome map<\/p>\n Scientists use annotation, labeling genes on a genome map, to turn raw DNA into a usable reference for biology.<\/p>\n Because RNA<\/a> comes from finished messages, it can expose missing exons and patch gaps that confuse DNA-only gene lists.<\/p>\n In the thylacine, RNA data pointed to the likely location of ribosomal RNA genes that were absent from earlier assemblies.<\/p>\n A better genome map helps researchers compare extinct animals with living ones, and it also reduces false signals in future studies.<\/p>\n Tracing old viruses in dead tissue<\/p>\n The team also detected traces of RNA viruses, viruses that store their genes as RNA, in the thylacine material.<\/p>\n Those signals were thin, and the authors urged caution, yet the result hints that museum specimens might preserve viral history.<\/p>\n If future work confirms these hints, researchers could compare related viruses across time and track how they changed.<\/p>\n That kind of work demands careful lab controls, because modern viral RNA can sneak in through reagents or human contact.<\/p>\n Lessons from thylacine RNA<\/p>\n This work pushes paleotranscriptomics, studying ancient RNA<\/a> to learn past gene activity, beyond permafrost and into dry museum drawers.<\/p>\n RNA profiles can reveal cell types, damage, and even signs of disease, giving extinct species a more detailed record.<\/p>\n Different preservatives may change what survives, so curators and scientists will need shared rules for sampling without ruining specimens.<\/p>\n The study drew on one preserved animal, so it cannot capture variation across age, season, health, or life history.<\/p>\n RNA<\/a> fragments were short and uneven, which makes it hard to measure low-level genes or rebuild complete messages.<\/p>\n Short fragments can map to many genomes, so reference databases can mislabel reads unless teams apply strict filters.<\/p>\n More samples from other extinct animals, paired with DNA and protein work, should show how widely this approach can scale.<\/p>\n The study is published in Genome Research<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n Like what you read? Subscribe to our newsletter<\/a> for engaging articles, exclusive content, and the latest updates.<\/p>\n Check us out on EarthSnap<\/a>, a free app brought to you by Eric Ralls<\/a> and Earth.com.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scientists in Sweden recovered RNA from an extinct, 130-year-old Tasmanian tiger, also known as a thylacine. They then…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":475521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3425,159,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-475520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-animals","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115793143701706587","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}