Scientists successfully resurrected an entire plant from tissue retrieved from an Ice Age seed, which had been stored in a burrow by a squirrel 30,000 years ago. The ancient seed was located on the right bank of the lower Kolyma River in northeastern Siberia, according to the reports by BBC News and Live Science.
The current study has been published online on Feb. 20 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. It is the oldest successful regeneration of a living plant from ancient tissue.
In 2005, Israeli scientists succeeded in planting a seed nearly 2,000 years old. Chinese scientists also have a record of excavating 1,300 years-old lotus seeds and reviving them.
The Russian research team investigated 38 meters beneath the surface and unearthed the seed of a silene stenophylla plant inside 70 fossil burrows hidden in ice deposits. The fruit tissue has been radiocarbon dated to between 28,000 and 32,000 years old.
Scientists did not plant the seed directly, but took immature fruit tissue and cultured it in a nutrient-rich goop. The cells in this fruit tissue have the ability to transform into all parts of the plant, and they did, growing into seedlings that the researchers then transplanted into regular soil.
Most plant seeds die within a few years. Only a few hearty species, including the 1,300-year-old lotus and s. stenophylla have built-in mechanisms that either preserve or repair the plants' DNA, according to the scientists.
They pointed out that these species' amazing longevity makes them a good place to look for clues about how humans might be able to beef up our own DNA repair, perhaps preventing cancer.
The researchers said, their genetics might also be useful if replicated in modern crops, since stored seeds quickly lose their nutrients and ability to grow.