Recently, Sergei Amstislavski, representative of the evolutionary genetics laboratory at the Cytology and Genetics Research Institute, headed for the Finnish town of Kuopio. Mr. Amstislavski jointly with his counterparts from the local university will hold a series of experiments on interspecies transplantation of the European mink's embryo. The scientists hope to find solution of the task on increasing population of this rare animal using adaptive mechanisms of its more successful congener - the American mink, which was brought to Europe from North America and has practically forced the aboriginal inhabitant out of its traditional range.
Arkadi Markel, professor of the Novosibirsk Cytology and Genetics Institute, told Vecherny Novosibirsk that the cooperation with the Finnish scientists had been fruitfully going on for three years now. This period witnessed several interspecies transplantations of embryo and even got an offspring, which gives hope that the mink on the European continent will be saved.
