Extinct Mammoth DNA Was Used to Make This Meatball

According to reports, a meatball has now been made from the DNA of the woolly mammoth. In recent years, scientists have learned to sequence the mammoth genome from the carcasses of the prehistoric animal from remains complete with fur, tissues, and even frozen blood well preserved in Arctic permafrost. The research into the woolly mammoth that went extinct about 5,000 years has now uncovered intriguing details about the Ice Age and a path to bringing back the animal.

Australian culture meat startup, Vow, has now used that research to create a mammoth meatball. The company shares that its creation serves to draw attention to the potential of cultured meat and help make eating habits more planet friendly. “We need to start rethinking how we get our food. My biggest hope for this project is…that a lot more people across the world begin to hear about cultured meat,” said James Ryall, Vow’s Chief Scientific Officer.

The meatball itself is not made for human consumption and only features a mix of cultivated lamb with some mammoth DNA. But Vow was able to produce around 400 grams of mammoth protein by focusing on myoglobin, the protein present in mammals. The startup identified the DNA sequence for the mammoth from a publicly available genome database and filled in the gaps with the genome of the African elephant. Surprisingly, the methodology is the same one used by scientists working towards bringing the woolly mammoth back into existence.

“Normally, we would taste our products and play around with them. But we were hesitant to immediately try and taste because we’re talking about a protein that hasn’t existed for 5,000 years. I’ve got no idea what the potential allergenicity might be of this particular protein,” Ryall said when sharing that they didn’t actually eat any of the meat.

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