godhelpusloseourmind t1_it8e7nu wrote on October 21, 2022 at 6:00 PM

Reply to comment by TheBrikk in A pioneering rewilding project has had an early surprise: a bouncing baby bison. It is the first wild bison to be born in the UK for thousands of years. by grab-n-g0

I wonder, if they had some DNA from old preserved specimens could you introduce it into the herd to bring up the gene diversity? Ie the ol clone and bone

_ElectricSynapse t1_it96j7e wrote on October 21, 2022 at 9:11 PM

There are lots of gene editing tools out there, so I doubt it's impossible, but the genetic diversity of the population will also improve over time due to random mutations.

ActivisionBlizzard t1_itb7yxl wrote on October 22, 2022 at 8:54 AM

On a human time scale the genetic diversity doesn’t meaningfully increase with time.

Delamoor t1_itb9dod wrote on October 22, 2022 at 9:15 AM

Let us keep hoping that they manage to hang on long enough for it to happen, yeah?

ActivisionBlizzard t1_itbaebv wrote on October 22, 2022 at 9:29 AM

Absolutely. Couldn’t be more happy that this type of thing is happening. But it doesn’t negate the fact that eventually the herds genetic diversity will need to be bolstered by outbreeding, which in this case is very possible.