Scientists Clone Oldest Living Organism 141
goran72 sends along the story of the world's oldest living organism, a shrub that grows in Tasmania and reproduces only by cloning. Tasmanian scientists have cloned Lomatia tasmanica as part of a battle to save it from a deadly fungus. From the RTBG's press release (which seems to load slowly in the US):"The Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens [RTBG] is working towards securing the future of a rare and ancient Tasmanian native plant... Lomatia tasmanica, commonly known as King's Lomatia, is critically endangered with less than 500 plants growing in the wild in a tiny pocket of Tasmania's isolated south west. The RTBG has been propagating the plant from cuttings since 1994... 'Fossil leaves of the plant found in the south west were dated at 43,600 years old and given that the species is a clone, it is possibly the oldest living plant in the world,' [Botanist Natalie Tapson] said."
not necessarily oldest living organism (Score:5, Interesting)
First, of course, what exactly constitutes a single "organism" is a bit controversial, especially with plants, and especially with clonal colonies. But even if you accept clonal colonies as bona-fide organisms, Pando [wikipedia.org] in Utah may or may not be older than Lomatia tasmanica [wikipedia.org], depending on which age estimates you believe.
facts (Score:5, Interesting)
As a horticulturalist who's worked on tissue culture projects...
1- tissue culture is growing a piece of plant of a medium (usually agar with nutrients) through various stages
2- there is no universal formula and different plants need different nutrient and environmental mixes to go through each stage
3- you're trying to get this piece of plant to create a root and shoot system
4- it requires many different steps and setups/transplants to walk a piece of plant material through the stages to where you can actually put a piece of rooted material into the ground and know it will make a plant
5- you'd be amazed how picky (or impossible...so far) it is to coax a chunk of plant tissue into creating a whole new plant out of it's cells
Re:not necessarily oldest living organism (Score:2, Interesting)
True story. Back in the 1980s I took a hitch hiking trip around Tasmania. I had a lot of trouble getting back to Devonport to catch my flight home because the east coast of Tasmania is a bit of a redneck retirement village and nobody was picking up hitch hikers (damn greenies, etc).
So I was stuck in this little town but along comes this old VW van. They stop and offer me a ride. Remember the bar scene in Star Wars ep 4? There were six people in that van with hideous facial deformities. And you know what? They were the nicest people I met all day. Took me as far as they were going and gave me advice about the region.
Back in those days there were very few immigrants around in Tassie. Very different from Victoria. I have been back a few times in the last couple of years and I am happy to say the place is changing for the better.
Re:Mucking with evolution (Score:1, Interesting)
Did you read the article the thing is being threated by a fungus not native to its habitat. In other words its something MAN brought to it, that is killing it.
Why do you automatically come to the conclusion that anything MAN does is somehow "not native"? Are humans native to this planet or not?
Why do you presume that humanity's actions are somehow "less natural" than the actions of other species?
cloning = just taking cuttings (Score:5, Interesting)
it is worth noting that in horticulture 'cloning' is simply the technical name for the process of propagating a plant through the use of cuttings.
you need no lab to do it - just simply a pair of scissors (or a scalpel), some rooting gel/powder and a rooting medium (compost will do), and a healthy donor ('mother') plant to work from. using a propagation unit will also give better results (perhaps better still if it's heated). 'cloning' plants in this fashion is actually very easy to do - my mum's a keen gardener and she does it with all kinds of plants all the time (one poster here claims to have cloned a plant at age 6 - and i have no reason to doubt that at all!!).
cloning is the primary method used to produce lots of (genetically) identical baby plants for use in commercial growing of all kinds (including, afaiu, in the illegal production of marijuana)
personally, i don't think this is particularly newsworthy, even if they are doing this with one of the oldest plant species in the world.
Re:Mucking with evolution (Score:1, Interesting)
Just because the fungus is not native to the habitat doesn't mean it got there by man. Organisms move all over the planet all by themselves.