SPECIES OF THE MONTH: MARCH 2012

THE OLDEST PLANT EVER RECREATED!

Kingdom: Plantae

Division: Angiosperms

Class: Dicots

Order: Caryophyllales

Family: Caryophyllaceae

Genus: Silene

Species: S. stenophylla

A team of scientists from the Institute of Cell Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences announced they had successfully regenerated Silene stenophylla a plant belonging to the Caryophyllaceae family from a fruit that had been frozen for 31,800 years.The accomplishment has not yet been independently verified, and previous claims of ancient regeneration have often not held up under scrutiny.If proven, the accomplishment would represent the oldest plant material brought back to life, surpassing the previous record of 2000 years set by Judean date palm seeds.

The team, led by David Gilichensky, used material found in about 70 ancient hibernation burrows made by ground squirrels in the genus Urocitellus and located at Duvanny Yar, near the bank of the lower Kolyma River. The burrows were found 20–40 meters (66–130 ft) below the present-day surface.Usually the rodents would eat the food in their larders, but in this case a flood or other weather event buried the whole area. Since the rodents had placed the larders at the level of the permafrost, the material froze almost immediately, and did not thaw out at any time since.More than 600,000 fruits and seeds were located at the site.

Commonly called narrow-leafed campion, Silene stenophylla is a species in the genus Silene. It grows in the Arctic tundra of far eastern Siberia and the mountains of Northern Japan. Frozen samples, estimated via radiocarbon dating to be around 32,000 years old, were discovered in the same area as current living specimens; and in 2012, a team claimed to have successfully regenerated a plant from the samples. Silene stenophylla grows in the Arctic tundra of far eastern Siberia and the mountains of Northern Japan.  Link: Wikipedia