100% germination rate from 1000 year old seed? Amazing! My seed collections don't stay that viable.
The trick is to use phytohormones to prime the seed [1]. It’s a relatively new technique that's plant specific so there aren’t any commercial products available to the general public AFAIK but we should see them hit the market in the next decade.
This headline is misleading, it isnt the biblical plant they were hoping for. Still neat how they germinated an old seed. From the article's end:
> Based on all these things, it’s not the Judean balsam
The headline is not misleading, though it's not the tree famous for perfume fragrance, they believe it may be close relative used for medicinal purposes!
I'm not really passionate about tech anymore but this is why I'm still coming to HN nowadays, including the comments. Thanks for posting this here.
How does it work given the 500-year half-life of the DNA?
The seed was still alive for those 1000 years. Still respirating from stored fats and carbs. Still performing cellular activities like DNA replication and repair.
Also plants often have many duplicate copies of their genome per cell.
Here's how I understand it, though I am just a layperson;
As all the strands of DNA in the cells of the seed degrade in different ways, the cells can still patch up the damaged DNA.
I assume 1/4th of the DNA can replicate enough after 1000 years.
Most of the DNA is non coding. Damage to it almost never compromises the genome.
This neat trick works like the sacrificial metal on the hulk of ships. (Loose analogy)
I think I've seen this horror movie. They get a cult like following it, and mysterious deaths are blamed on this tree.
But in all seriousness, that's pretty amazing. But what's the medicinal properties? It's not mentioned nearly at all in the article.
Still has to be scientifically proven to have medical applications
Does it? It's still interesting that they may have grown an ancient tree that has medicinal properties even if those medicinal properties aren't novel or useful.
Good luck waiting for that benefactor with the funds to pay for it, because it won't be the military pharmaceutical complex that doesn't make money if you're not coming back for more petrochemicals at dozens or more of dollars per gram.
Very interesting, and the seedling composite leaves are compatible with Commiphora. There are 208 species to discard before to call it a new species.
I hope they can clone it or find more seeds.
Fruit trees can take a very long time to mature and grow flowers/fruit. Hopefully it can pollinate with itself, and isn’t a kind that has sexes.
Worst case you can clone it and GMO it into a different sex. Wouldn't be easy or cheap, but it's definitely something that's possible.
Cloning is likely. Finding more seeds unlikely. The plant hasn't flowered or grown fruit yet so the story insult over yet...
Any prediction markets up on it having adverse side effects, like cancer, being found within 5 years
It's an ancient variation of a tree species already still living in multiple counties. Probably not much to glean beyond that especially because it didn't flower or have any special attributes based on their tests over the 14yrs it's been growing
Now resurrect silphium.
Arguably, it never went extinct. Theres a Turkish guy, Dr. Miski, who thinks he rediscovered an extant patch of it that may have been grown in an old anatolian village. DOI 10.3390/plants10010102
Not sure why you're not linking directly to that in a much easier to access way?
Because of copy paste straight to Anna's Archive perhaps?
Thanks, didn't realise that.
I guess that's useful for people who aren't able to access the article itself in the standard ways, being that it doesn't seem to be paywalled at all.
Being frank, I didn't even realize this was available freely. When I searched "Miski silphium" the first place I ran across was asking for a log in (researchgate I believe) so I just copied the DOI since its easier for folks... PTSD from reading a lot of papers I guess. IYKYK
Anyways I first read about this in a book: The Lost Supper by Taras Grescoe. I also recommend checking that book out if you find this topic interesting.
that's actually what I went to the article to check on, if it was silphium. alas, it was not - had me excited for a moment.
but, resurrecting plants that are extinct is still very exciting.
Why is this getting downvoted?
Unfortunately, Silphium will likely never be resurrected. Even the Romans did not manage to grow it. Wiki:
Another theory is that when Roman provincial governors took over power from Greek colonists, they over-farmed silphium and rendered the soil unable to yield the type that was said to be of such medicinal value. Theophrastus wrote in Enquiry into Plants that the type of Ferula specifically referred to as "silphium" was odd in that it could not be cultivated.[16] He reports inconsistencies in the information he received about this, however.[17] This could suggest the plant is similarly sensitive to soil chemistry as huckleberries which, when grown from seed, are devoid of fruit.[2]
Similar to the soil theory, another theory holds that the plant was a hybrid, which often results in very desired traits in the first generation, but second-generation can yield very unpredictable outcomes. This could have resulted in plants without fruits, when planted from seeds, instead of asexually reproducing through their roots.[2]
PS: The poster (not me) seemed to have expected this. Throway...
The Romans may have had difficulty cultivating it but based on recent findings, local peasants in the region were capable of doing so. See my other comment above or check out DOI 10.3390/plants10010102 -- its possible it never went extinct at all.
Now that is some Biblical News!
Jesus coming
Yup, we could clonate five Jesus and generate five new religions that would fight with the other four to death for being the authentic one. Interesting possibility.