Flowering Plant Revived After 30,000 Years in Russian Permafrost

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/technology/2012/02/flowering-plant-revived-after-30000-years-in-russian-permafrost/

Feb 20, 2012 3:00pm

The plant in this picture dates from the Pleistocene Age, 30,000 years ago, before agriculture, before writing, before the end of the last Ice Age. And while it’s not accurate to say the plant itself is that old, scientists in Russia say they regenerated it from frozen cells they found beneath 125 feet of permafrost in what is now northeastern Siberia.

It was cultivated in the lab, with help from some “clonal micropropagation,” say the scientists, from seeds and leaves probably collected by some long-ago species of squirrel. The researchers, publishing their find today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, say the squirrel’s burrow was probably frozen over quickly, and stayed that way until they discovered it.

[...]

They also point to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in the northernmost reaches of Norway, an ultra-high security, ultra-low temperature bank for the seeds of every plant we eat — more than two million of them. More than 100 nations have left seeds there in a sort of frozen Noah’s Ark, so that species can be recovered in case of some sort of calamity.

When the vault was set up in 2008, there was doubt it would be useful. The Russian team now says it is “of great interest and importance,” worth keeping up.

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