Post date: Feb 24, 2012 7:9:27 PM
PUSHCHINO, RUSSIA (FEBRUARY 24, 2012) (REUTERS) - Scientists in Russia have managed to revive a 30,000 year-old plant species using tissues from a seed preserved in Siberian permafrost.
Russian scientists revive a plant from the ice age using a 30,000 year old seed preserved in Siberian permafrost.
A celebrated scientific city since Soviet times, Pushchino, located about 100 kilometres (62 miles) from Moscow, hosts the Institute of Cell Biophysics Russian Academy of Sciences (ICB RAS).
Despite a dire lack of funding and setbacks due to frequent building renovations, scientists at the ICB RAS have grown several generations of a flowering plant from the late Pleistocene era.
The plant - Silene stenophylla - produces white flowers and tiny tear-drop shaped fruit, and is similar in appearance to its modern version which can still be found in Siberia.
It is the oldest plant ever to be regenerated, according to researchers, and its successful regeneration is a break through.
"We, for the first time, are seeing live, how do you say, plants after such a long period of preservation. It shows that we can save animal and plant cells because they regenerate," Svetlana Yashina, a head researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences Institute of Cell Biophysics, who has spearheaded the experiment, told Reuters.
The seeds from which the plant was regenerated were found in a gopher burrow in permafrost in Siberia's Yakutia region.
The experiment's success, according to Yashina, can be used to prove that not only seeds, but other living tissues can be preserved for extremely long periods of time.
"This experience is really unique in that we confirmed the properties of permafrost as a natural cryobank," Yashina told Reuters.
The successful regeneration of an ice age flower, which according to Yashina, gives off a pleasant scent, also gives scientists a glimpse into Ice Age climate conditions.
"This is a unique education on this earth that gives us the opportunity to go into the secrets of ancient worlds," Yashina said.
There are further implications from the experiment's success.
Scientists have unearthed the remains of ice ace mammals in the Siberian permafrost such as bison, deer, and mammoth.
The success of ice age flowers gives hope to Japanese and Russian researchers working to revive and clone Pleistocene-era mammals.