Russian Scientists Revive Plant From 30,000-Year-Old Seeds 162
An anonymous reader writes "It was an Ice Age squirrel's treasure chamber, a burrow containing fruit and seeds that had been stuck in the Siberian permafrost for over 30,000 years. From the fruit tissues, a team of Russian scientists managed to resurrect an entire plant in a pioneering experiment that paves the way for the revival of other species. The Silene stenophylla is the oldest plant ever to be regenerated, the researchers said, and it is fertile, producing white flowers and viable seeds. ... 'The squirrels dug the frozen ground to build their burrows, which are about the size of a soccer ball, putting in hay first and then animal fur for a perfect storage chamber,' said Stanislav Gubin, one of the authors of the study, who spent years rummaging through the area for squirrel burrows. 'It's a natural cryobank.'"
That could be a market hit! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:That could be a market hit! (Score:5, Insightful)
That shouldn't be modded funny. I remember the Wollembi Pine retailing for $100 a sapling here in Australia a few years ago. Each sapling was numbered. There was a lot of novelty in having the Nth Wollembi Pine in the world.
There's a hell of a lot of money to be made here.
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Re:That could be a market hit! (Score:5, Informative)
But... how did it taste? :)
Actually, Wikipedia indicates [wikipedia.org] that was a dubious claim by a con man.
The reference is dead, but you can get it it via archive.org here [archive.org]
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The Day of the Triffids! (Score:2)
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What if it grows into some giant triffid/Venus flytrap monster? Perhaps that was what wiped out the dinosaurs. We won't care what it tastes like then. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Oh no (Score:5, Funny)
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I think you mean Jurassic Park.
The real-life kind of sequel
Re:Oh no (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh no (Score:5, Funny)
I was thinking more of a sequel to Monty Python and the Holy Grail: "Far more terrifying than the Rabbit of Caerbannog, it stalks its prey as it has since the dawn of time..."
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Can't be worst than a George Lucas movie with a duck.
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I think you mean Jurassic Park.
Sounds more like Zyryanka-Sartan Park to me. But that name would never fly on the US marker. :-)
I saw this movie (Score:5, Insightful)
Well the question is, how can you know anything about an extinct ecosystem? And therefore, how could you ever assume that you can control it? I mean, you have plants in this building that are poisonous. You picked them because they look good. But these are aggressive living things that have no idea what century they're in, and they'll defend themselves, violently if necessary.
Re:I saw this movie (Score:5, Funny)
But these are aggressive living things that have no idea what century they're in, and they'll defend themselves, violently if necessary.
Great, just great. And now we've brought them into an era when handguns are cheap and readily available.
Re:I saw this movie (Score:5, Funny)
"Well, what can I say? I guess I'm just a bad seed."
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But these are aggressive living things that have no idea what century they're in, and they'll defend themselves, violently if necessary.
Great, just great. And now we've brought them into an era when handguns are cheap and readily available.
Duh, they're plants, so they don't have hands, so how can they use a handgun? Jesus Christ, people, think these things through.
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Re:I saw this movie (Score:4, Interesting)
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you could expect to eat a stegosaurus steak or a Jurassic plant pretty much as readily as a modern buffalo steak or root tuber.
I'm sure the farmer and meat processing plant would disagree.....
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At least they'll help us fight the zombies.
Re:I saw this movie (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:I saw this movie (Score:5, Informative)
The only movie I can think of is "Little Shop of Horrors", but I don't think that was quite the violent-plant image you had in mind...
It could be The Day of the Triffids [wikipedia.org]. Nothing is scarier than malevolent celery.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_From_Another_World [wikipedia.org]
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Re:I saw this movie (Score:5, Informative)
For the curious, pretty much all plants carry out some degree of chemical warfare between each other and other organisms—from the obvious, like plant seeds full of cyanides, to more subtle things, like conifers acidifying the soil around them with their needles and roots to prevent anything else from growing (and much more subtle things still.) I don't know quite enough about Siberia thirty thousand years ago to make a good statement, but I would guess that it was a little more temperate than it currently is; in that case, it's probable that the plants from that era were chemically more aggressive, as the the availability of resources and the richness of the soil would have been higher.
Then again, one need only take this particular species further south to find out that it might very well be about average for the present day. Unfortunately there isn't enough historical expression information about plants to make a guess at the inflation rate (or deflation rate) over the long-term for plant toxicity in different ecosystems... but it could make a neat thesis topic.
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Heresy! We all know that the earth is the hottest it has ever been, and getting hotter, all due to man. At least that is what CNN keeps telling me. /sarcasm
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Funny how you got modded troll for telling exactly what environmentalists have been going on for about, for years. It's been much warmer than it has now. Much, much warmer. It's also been a hell of a lot colder. $20 says that in 30 years, our kids will be wondering why anyone believed in this.
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I don't know quite enough about Siberia thirty thousand years ago to make a good statement, but I would guess that it was a little more temperate than it currently is
Not likely. 30000 years ago we were not in an interglacial: http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k247/dhm1353/Climate%20Change/alley.png [photobucket.com]
Re:I saw this movie (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I saw this movie (Score:4, Funny)
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The plant in question is not extinct, and is part of the current ecosystem in the Siberian tundra.
Had this been an extinct plant, there would be something to worry about.
Re:I saw this movie (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, the particular species in question is still alive today. It didn't "fail" anything...
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Buzzkill.
In Soviet Russia ... (Score:2, Funny)
.. plant revives you!
Re:In Soviet Russia ... (Score:5, Informative)
.. revived plants kill you!
FTFY. From the second FA:
Tragedy has now struck the Russian team. Dr. Gilichinksy, its leader, was hospitalized with an asthma attack and unable to respond to questions, his daughter Yana said on Friday. On Saturday, Dr. Price reported that Dr. Gilichinsky had died of a heart attack.
Re:In Soviet Russia ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Holy crap. That sounds like the beginning of a novel.
So...what happened to the squirrel? (Score:1)
just what I need (Score:5, Funny)
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Just what I need - another plant to be allergic to.
TFA the 2nd:
Tragedy has now struck the Russian team. Dr. Gilichinksy, its leader, was hospitalized with an asthma attack and unable to respond to questions
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Off topic - I like your sig (Score:2)
Scrat? (Score:1)
Was Scrat's acorn in there too? Did the poor little guy ever get his treasure?
After the plant matures... (Score:3)
It will spray it's euro toxin at the researchers and take over their bodies with it's spores. commanding it's new plant zombie army to take over the world!
and it will have fabulous parties.
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Euro toxin? I didn't know this plant was found in Greece.
I'm not supersticious, but... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Realistically though, 30,000 years ago the earth wasn't much different than today.
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from about 75,000 years ago until about 14,500 years ago, the world was glaciered over.
Here's a brief rundown of the climactic change over the years:
75,000 - 60,000 y.a. - full glacial world, cold and dry (the 'Lower Pleniglacial' or Stage 4)
60,000 - 25,000 y.a. - 'middling phase' of highly unstable but generally cooler and drier-than-present conditions (Stage 3)
25,000 - 15,000 y.a. - full glacial world, cold and dry; Stage 2 (includes the 'Last Glacial Maximum')
(This period includes two 'coldest phases' -
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Re:I'm not supersticious, but... (Score:5, Informative)
Calm down, it is just a plant. There is no reason to expect it to be more dangerous than any one of millions of other plant species which are currently not taking over the world. It was around 30,000 years ago, and spectacularly failed to take over the world back then when it had the chance. The article notes that there is a very similar species (Silene stenophylla) which is around today, also not taking over the world.
Obligatory tag (Score:2)
Does this make it the world's oldest known life? (Score:2, Interesting)
Off course the modern question is: (Score:2)
Really Slashdot, No Krynoid references? (Score:2)
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Krynoid [wikia.com]
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/The_Seeds_of_Doom [wikia.com]
For shame... for shame...
No one remembers their Tom Baker Dr. Who episodes.
jurassic park (Score:2)
Jurassic Park meets little shop of horrors!
Hope Rick Moranis isnt in this one!
Re:Enough Problems Already... (Score:5, Informative)
Am I missing some major potential social or environmental benefit to doing this?
It proves that it's possible to grow plants from long-frozen seeds, so shows its worth preserving (freezing) seeds just in case something really bad happens to the living plants. (This has already happened, where species have been wiped out in the wild by mining and forestry, then reintroduced once the companies have left.)
The techniques might be useful for other, more recently extincted (?) species.
And it's challenging and interesting, that is reason enough.
Re:Enough Problems Already... (Score:5, Informative)
If you read the article, which a lot of people on Slashdot don't do, a lot of scientists are skeptical, but even if the Russians did exactly what they said they did, they didn't grow the plants from seeds in the normal sense. They basically cloned the plants, growing them from cells in the seeds--if only a few cells are alive, they could be cloned but it probably wouldn't be enough for the seeds to sprout.
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Also gives some urgency to actually looking hard at the permafrost before it melts.
No telling what else is frozen in there that we might find handy or decorative to revive (besides mammoths, of course).
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How is a mammoth either handy or decorative?
It *might* be handy... but then you would be taking the Flintstones a little too seriously.
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Well, it's an awful lot of meat... I'd imagine that there'd be a LOT of people willing to pay a premium for a nice mammoth steak, perhaps served with a nice reduction of merlot and portabello mushrooms.. not to mention the fact that you could use the other parts too: Ice Age Oysters, anyone?
You could make a rug out of it's pelt. Then there's the tusks... and you could powder the bones and sell it as an aphrodisiac.
Why, the possibilities are endless!
Regards,
dj
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*Snort* Now I need to clean my display.
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Re:Enough Problems Already... (Score:5, Interesting)
I absolutely agree with you that threatened plants should be preserved. There is a problem, though, and that is some plants are very adapted to a tiny environmental niche. By way of example, there are prairie flowers here in Minnesota that grow only on the south side of sandy glacial moraines in a few mile radius from Glendalough State Park. According to park rangers, efforts to plant them in cultivation elsewhere have failed, as have efforts to transplant them elsewhere in the state. It's something about the soil, the drainage, the natural fertilizers, the rain, the light, the humidity, the temperatures, the snowfall, the bugs, the freezing, all coming together so intricately that nobody knows which environmental cues are required to grow them.
Overall, this plant does not have great survival traits. And as such, I'd guess that such a plant isn't adding much to the ecosystem. But as often happens with wildflowers, there may be a certain pollinator that is finely adapted to it, meaning that if the plant dies, that specialized moth/fly/insect may die with it. So while the plant may not be directly critical to humans, it's still having some impact on its environment.
In terms of "what is the most important plant to save", this wouldn't be at the top of the list. And in terms of "if we have storage space to save only 100,000 different seeds, so let's save the ones we know we can grow back", it also won't make the cut. But in terms of "what plants are so threatened that we should preserve their seeds while a few still exist?" it might make that list.
Re:Enough Problems Already... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Do you know what it's called? I could look it up in our databases, and see if we have it (in the botanic garden, or in the seedbank).
I wish I remembered. It was about 10 years ago, and my son's scout troop did a service project harvesting some geum triflorum (prairie smoke) seeds for the ranger. They were drying them out for distribution to prairie restoration projects. We stored them in a shed, and as we delivered the seeds he told us of this other nearby endangered flower that they had no success transplanting. It might have been "Frenchman's Bluff moonwort".
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"It proves that it's possible to grow plants from long-frozen seeds, so shows its worth preserving (freezing) seeds"
Actually it doesn't. Don't know if this article mentions it, but anyway, in this case the plants were cloned from embryonic parts of the frozen plants, no seeds involved.
The cloned plants developed seeds later on, like always.
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The plant might contain the cure for cancer, aids, altzheimers, etc. Then again, it might just taste good mixed in a tossed salad.
Re:Enough Problems Already... (Score:4, Funny)
Then again, it might just taste good mixed in a tossed salad.
I've heard that it improves the taste of beef synthesized from stem cells.
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Re:Enough Problems Already... (Score:5, Insightful)
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Exactly. And even if none of that works out. What the hell? Why not? "Because we can" works for me.
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The plans contain the cure for cancer or maybe HIV or maybe the common cold? Don't dismIss it until after it Is studied
Re:Enough Problems Already... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Enough Problems Already... (Score:4, Insightful)
No you didn't, you stated:
So rather than being curious as to what the purpose of this was (since your question was rhetorical, as you obviously don't care about the responses) you insisted that they stop doing this and do something else. What that might be I can't fathom.
Your post indicates little to no actual curiosity and rather indignation that they are doing something you perceive to not be valuable. So yeah, you're gonna get flamed.
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Am I missing some major potential social or environmental benefit to doing this?
You mean besides knowing yet another way we can undo some of the damage we've caused to this planet?
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... get over it, move on, do something productive for TODAY.
Like... stop posting on /.?
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FTA:
The burrows were located 125 feet (38 meters) below the present surface in layers containing bones of large mammals, such as mammoth, wooly rhinoceros, bison, horse and deer...
Gubin said the study has demonstrated that tissue can survive ice conservation for tens of thousands of years, opening the way to the possible resurrection of Ice Age mammals.
Ice Age mammals might be useful today. If nothing else it would be pretty cool to see a mammoth or a wooly rhino..
Re:Enough Problems Already... (Score:5, Informative)
Something a lot of people seem to be missing: this is not an extinct species. These are seeds from a plant that is still alive and growing wild in Siberia to this very day.
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Something a lot of people seem to be missing: this is not an extinct species. These are seeds from a plant that is still alive and growing wild in Siberia to this very day.
This is not an adequate summary. They are seeds from a plant that's the 30,000-year-old ancestor of the plants that are alive today. There will be differences. The differences will be worth studying.
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Gene sequencing for plants is still pretty much in its infancy. Species differentiation is still done visually, by-and-large.
Unless and until they do gene sequencing and find significant enough variance between the two, they will be classified as the same species (at least judging from the meager details in the article). The likelihood of there being enough variances for that to be the case is small, though still possible. The changes (or lack thereof) are worth studying, but jumping to the conclusion it is
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Things have been changing for a long time with and without our direct intervention.
Invasive species suck sometimes. They can cause a loss in species diversity. They can also be a tremendous driving force for adaptat
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Did you fail at math? Homo Sapiens originated about 200,000 years ago. Last time I checked, 30,000 was less than 200,000.
Re:Enough Problems Already... (Score:5, Funny)
Did you fail at math?
Obviously he went to high school in Texas. He probably did very well in math.
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That would be the same district that redefined pi as 3?
I know, I know. urban legend [snopes.com]. It's still funny though. :)
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Re:Enough Problems Already... (Score:5, Funny)
My mistake, I missed a zero. Funny how many different numbers I see flying around for how old humans are, yet everyone's up in arms about a simple oversight.
Hi there, you must be new to Slashdot. Welcome to Slashdot.
Re:Enough Problems Already... (Score:5, Informative)
No you're way more than a zero off. Homo Erectus originated nearly 2 million years ago. So even if it had been 300,000 rather than 30,000 you're still nearly an order of magnitude off from being even remotely right.
Re:Enough Problems Already... (Score:4, Informative)
And that's just going back to erectus. Everything in Homo is definitely "human" and habilis is at least 2.3 million years ago with no reason to believe it's the earliest. But even that is a bit stingy for my taste. I think it's fair to consider anything in Hominina to be human. How long ago Hominina arose is unclear, but there is some evidence for an age of at least 7 million years and other evidence that it cannot exceed about 5.5 million years.
Re:Enough Problems Already... (Score:5, Funny)
Joan Rivers and some parts of Cher are even older than that.
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You don't need to run fast, just faster then the next person...
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You don't need to run fast, just faster then the next person...
In this case, you just have to outrun the plant.
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Apparently they haven't seen this movie in Russia yet
Do you suppose it was considered anti-Soviet?
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Thanks for adding to the garbage.