Russian scientists say they've grown a flowering plant from material extracted from seeds deposited in the Siberian permafrost 30,000 years ago.
The work of the scientists at the Institute of Cell Biophysics in Russia is creating a worldwide buzz after being published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.
Previously, the oldest known seed material that has been able to produce life was from about 2,000 years ago, science writer Ed Yong reports in a Discover magazine blog giving details of the work of the Russian breakthrough.
The plants, named silene stenophylla, are from a time when wooly mammoths and saber-tooth cats lived in Siberia. Their 300-century path to life began when squirrels brought the fruit of the plant and the immature seeds the fruit contained into a riverbank burrow. As the climate cooled, the burrow was covered with layers of ice and the seeds were preserved by temperatures of minus-7 degrees Celsius (19.4 degrees Fahrenheit), according to Yong's report.
The immature seeds were extracted from the burrow along the banks of the Kolyma River more than five years ago.
The Russian scientists were able to take what is called "placenta tissue" from the immature seeds, grow that tissue into mature seeds in a lab environment, and then plant those seeds in normal soil and watch them grow into the blossoming plants, according to a report from the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
Those plants have now produced their own seeds and fruits, establishing a whole new generation of the ancient plant, the reports said.
The ancient plants differ only slightly from their modern descendants in the shape of their petals and sex of the flowers, the RIA Novosti report said.
The news of the ancient plants brought to life immediately brought speculation about whether other life forms might be resurrected from the permafrost, which James Haile, a scientist at Murdoch University in Australia, said earlier this year was.
"Siberia, Alaska and the Yukon could act as one massive freezer, where ancient life has been stored, waiting to greet the world again," Yong wrote on his blog.
"The success of the Russian scientists may open a door to a whole new area of experiments in reviving extinct plants buried under layers of soil, especially in the Arctic zone, for thousands of years," the RIA Novosti article said.
俄科學(xué)家成功讓3萬(wàn)年前種子復(fù)活
（2012-02-22）
在莫斯科附近的實(shí)驗(yàn)室里，科學(xué)家們?cè)噲D用成熟的果實(shí)進(jìn)行種植，但是失敗了。他們轉(zhuǎn)而采用植物的胎盤(pán)組織，結(jié)果在控制溫度和光照的條件下，成功地在花盆里培植出了全株植物。
研究團(tuán)隊(duì)領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人、俄羅斯科學(xué)院的亞希納和吉利辛斯基說(shuō)，這無(wú)疑是第一次讓這么古老的植物復(fù)活。在這項(xiàng)紀(jì)錄之前，科學(xué)家曾將一顆在以色列靠近死海的地方發(fā)現(xiàn)的2000年棕櫚科種子種活。
這顆屬于剪秋羅屬植物（Silene stenophylla）。研究員對(duì)這顆種子的生物組織進(jìn)行放射性碳測(cè)定年代分析后，已確認(rèn)為它已存在了3萬(wàn)1800年，可能偏差為300年。
周二出版的《美國(guó)國(guó)家科學(xué)院學(xué)報(bào)》上發(fā)表的這個(gè)研究報(bào)告說(shuō)，俄羅斯考古學(xué)家在西伯利亞科雷馬河岸邊的永凍層中，發(fā)現(xiàn)了70個(gè)松鼠冬眠的洞穴，里面有很多各種植物的果實(shí)。
報(bào)告還說(shuō)：“所有洞穴都離地表20-40米，土層里還有大型哺乳動(dòng)物如猛犸象、披毛犀、野牛、馬、鹿和其他的晚更新世時(shí)期動(dòng)物的骨頭?！?
凍土層實(shí)際上有如一個(gè)巨大的冰箱，松鼠收藏的種子和果實(shí)在這個(gè)封閉世界里一直處于平均零下7攝氏度的環(huán)境中，數(shù)萬(wàn)年來(lái)從沒(méi)有融解過(guò)。
在莫斯科附近的實(shí)驗(yàn)室里，科學(xué)家用成熟的種子進(jìn)行種植，但是失敗了。他們于是轉(zhuǎn)從這些果實(shí)的胎盤(pán)(植物生出種子的部分)中提取出細(xì)胞，然后培育出新的種子。
結(jié)果，在溫度和光照受控制的條件下，這些種子成功地在花盆里培植出了全株植物。
這種剪秋羅屬植物目前在西伯利亞凍原上還有，這株史前剪秋羅屬植物的外觀與現(xiàn)代同類植物非常相似，但葉子較寬。加拿大育空地區(qū)育空古生物學(xué)計(jì)劃的扎祖拉告訴記者：“這是神奇的突破。我毫不懷疑這個(gè)成果的合法性。”
科學(xué)家早已經(jīng)知道，某些植物的細(xì)胞在條件合適的情況下可以存活上千年，比如北美野生宿根植物北極羽扇豆（Arctic Lupine）。20世紀(jì)中期，育空區(qū)的金礦工人在一個(gè)1萬(wàn)年前松鼠洞穴中發(fā)現(xiàn)的植物種子，就發(fā)芽生長(zhǎng)了。
俄羅斯科學(xué)家的成果，可能成為古代生物材料學(xué)研究的里程碑，同樣的技術(shù)也可能為人類讓其他物種包括已經(jīng)滅絕的生物再生帶來(lái)希望。
研究報(bào)告還指出，這項(xiàng)成果也在在表明，凍土對(duì)于搜索曾經(jīng)在地球上出現(xiàn)過(guò)的古老生命的重要性。
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