Seed endurance

Ancient flower blooms again

Fruit frozen underground for more than 31,000 years produce plants

By Roberta Kwok / March 16, 2012

Scientists grew this flower from fruit that had been frozen underground for more than 31,000 years. Credit: PNAS Permission granted from PNAS

Imagine putting a seed in a freezer, waiting 30,000 years, and then taking the seed out and planting it. Do you think a flower would grow?

Amazingly, scientists have just managed to do something very similar. They found the fruit of an ancient plant that had been frozen underground in Siberia — a region covering central and eastern Russia — for about 31,800 years. Using pieces of the fruit, the scientists grew plants in a lab. The new blooms have delicate white petals. They are also the oldest flowering plants that researchers have ever revived from a deep freeze.

“This is like regenerating a dinosaur from tissues of an ancient egg,” University of California, Los Angeles biologist Jane Shen-Miller told Science News./.../