Herps in the news! Scientists attempt to clone extinct gastric-brooding frog, Rheobatrachus silu.

         An article found in Popular Science titled “Scientists Resurrect Bonkers Extinct Frog That Gives Birth Through Its Mouth” gives hope of successfully cloning an incredibly unique and extinct herp, the southern gastric-brooding frog. Gastric-brooding frogs were described in 1972 in the mountain range of Queensland, Australia. However, it wasn’t till 2 years later when the extremely fascinating ability to brood young was discovered. Shortly after this discovery of the frog that could turn stomach to womb, it was already endangered and heading towards extinction. Within 9 years of discovery the last wild specimen was seen and in another 2 years the last gastric-brooding frog died in captivity. 

          The gastric-brooding frog would swallow fertilized eggs while stopping production of stomach acids until 20-25 fully developed juvenile frogs were orally hatched.  This is the only frog species documented to orally brood and had only been documented previously in a few fish species, it became clear the importance of this phenomenon from a biology standpoint. Even within medicine, studies began to look at how these frogs could stop stomach acid production which could help with ulcers and other intestinal problems. Before any study was complete the frogs were extinct. Like many other species of endangered and extinct frogs, they were confronted with habitat loss, parasites, invasive fungi, and predatory hogs which led to their own extinction.

          Once extinct, specimens were preserved for over a decade until they were recently removed from freezers and DNA was extracted to begin a highly improbable and controversial experiment. The Lazarus Project began at University of Newcastle, which aims to take the gastric-brooding frog’s DNA and insert it into an egg of closely related species (barred frog) to clone this extinct species back to life. First, the nucleus of the barred frog’s egg was destroyed by UV light then the gastric-brooding frog’s DNA was inserted using somatic-cell nuclear transfer, a cutting edge cloning technique. Shockingly, the eggs began to divide into embryo developing stages. However, there was no more progress after embryo developing stages, this means that complete cloning is just around the corner with fine tuning of methods. Scientists of the Lazarus Project are optimistic that cloning of the extinct southern gastric-brooding frog will occur shortly and lead to some incredible implications for other extinct species.

          As mentioned earlier, Lazarus Project has become very controversial among the science and public community. If cloning of an extinct species occurs, man could truly reverse many extinctions like that of the dodo, woolly mammoth, and many of the other extinct herps. Should man be able to manipulate and reverse nature’s processes? What becomes warranted to reverse? Is it okay if man was the reason of extinction or can any species be brought back to life to increase biodiversity? Ultimately, once cloning is complete of the gastric-brooding frogs these issues will be confronted with much debate.

Citations courtsey of:

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-03/scientists-resurrect-bonkers-extinct-frog-gives-birth-through-its-mouth

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/03/15/resurrecting-the-extinct-frog-with-a-stomach-for-a-womb/

Photo courtsey of:

http://eol.org/pages/41278/overview