0.5 million years old living bacteria found

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T

ThaG

Sicc OG
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Jun 30, 2005
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http://www.ku.dk/english/news/?content=http://www.ku.dk/english/news/ancient_dna.htm

A research has for the first time ever discovered DNA from living bacteria that are more than half a million years old. Never before has traces of still living organisms that old been found. The exceptional discovery can lead to a better understanding of the ageing of cells and might even cast light on the question of life on Mars.

The discovery is being published in the current issue of PNAS (Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences of The United States of America). The discovery was made by Professor Eske Willerslev from the University of Copenhagen and his international rearch team.
How cells age

All cells decompose with time. But some cells are better than others to postpone the decomposing and thus delay ageing and eventually death. And there are even organisms that are capable of regenerating and thereby repair damaged cells. These cells – their DNA – are very interesting to the understanding of the process of how cells break down and age.
Oldest life on earth

The research team, which consists of internatinal experts in, among other things, DNA-traces in sediments and organisms, have found ancient bacteria that still contains active and living DNA. So far, it is the oldest finding of organisms containing active DNA and thus life on this earth. The discovery was made after excavations of layers of permafrost in the nort-western Canada, the north-eastern Sibiria and Antarctica.

- Our project is about eg. examining how bacteria can live after having been frozen down for millions of years. Other researchers has tried to uncover the life of the past and the following evolutionary development by focusing on cells that are in a state of deadlike lethargy. We, on the other hand, have found a method that makes is possible to extract and isolate DNA-traces from cells that are still active. It gives a more precise picture of the past life and the evolution towards the present because we are dealing with cells that still have a metabolistic function – unlike “dead” cells where that function has ceased, says Eske Willerslev.
Future perspectives

After the fieldwork and the isolation of the DNA, the researchers compared the DNA to DNA from a worldwide gene-bank in the US to identify the ancient material. Much in the same way the police compares fingerprints from a crime. The researchers were able to place the DNA more precisely and to place it in a context.

- There is a very long way, of course, from our basic research towards understanding why some cells can become that old. But it is interesting in this context to look at how cells break down and are restored and thus are kept over a very long period. Our methods and results can be used to determine if there was ever life on Mars the way we perceive life on earth. And then there is the grand perspective in relation to Darwin’s evolution theory. It predicts that life never returns to the same genetic level. But our findings allow us to post the question: are we dealing with a circular evolution where development, so to speak, bites its own tail if and when ancient DNA are mixed with new?, says Eske Willerslev.
The research team:

Professor Eske Willerslev
University of Copenhagen

Sarah Stewart Johnson
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, [email protected]

Martin B. Hebsgaard
University of Copenhagen, [email protected]

Torben R. Christensen
Lund University, [email protected]

Mikhail Mastepanov
Lund University, [email protected]

Rasmus Nielsen
University of Copenhagen, [email protected]

Kasper Munch
University of Copenhagen, [email protected]

Tina B. Brand
University of Copenhagen, [email protected]

M. Thomas P. Gilbert
University of Copenhagen, [email protected]

Maria T. Zuber
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, [email protected]

Michael Bunce
Murdoch University, [email protected]

Regin Rønn, University of Copenhagen - [email protected]

David Gilichinsky
Russian Academy of Sciences, [email protected]

Duane Froese
University of Alberta, [email protected]
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original paper:

http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/104/36/14401
 
T

ThaG

Sicc OG
#4
Jun 30, 2005
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BTW the most important implication of these findings is that they support the possibility of bacterial life surviving in open space from long periods of time and being transported over large distances
 
W

WHITE DEVIL

Sicc OG
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Dec 25, 2003
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But wouldnt you call sitting pretty in some permafrost alot more easily accomplished than coming in on some asteroid, surviving entry and impact, and living in a foreign environment?
 
T

ThaG

Sicc OG
#6
Jun 30, 2005
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WHITE DEVIL said:
But wouldnt you call sitting pretty in some permafrost alot more easily accomplished than coming in on some asteroid, surviving entry and impact, and living in a foreign environment?
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of course, but if you can't live in a dormant state for as long is takes to travel the distance between planets, you will never have any chance to accomplish it
 
SecondzAway

SecondzAway

Sicc OG
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Jul 24, 2007
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You know I have nothing against Evolution , or the ideals it represents. To be honest I'm not really sure where I stand on how everythign came to be.............but something still puzzles me........How scientist can say something has a certian age, when the methods for discerning its age were created by man.

Which would make any answer, a best guess at any level, and not factual. Even more confuzing is how we can "seemingly" know how things fitt together and took place way back when.....when scientist can't go back in time to document it, study it....or let alone re-create it.

I'm not saying I'm a creationist.....just confuzed is all....none of it really clicks at all for me......either that or It hasn't been explained to me in way that really makes sense...ya know
 
T

ThaG

Sicc OG
#9
Jun 30, 2005
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SecondzAway said:
You know I have nothing against Evolution , or the ideals it represents. To be honest I'm not really sure where I stand on how everythign came to be.............but something still puzzles me........How scientist can say something has a certian age, when the methods for discerning its age were created by man.
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the methods are created by man but they are based on the laws of nature and these are independent of us
 
W

WHITE DEVIL

Sicc OG
#11
Dec 25, 2003
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SecondzAway said:
You know I have nothing against Evolution , or the ideals it represents. To be honest I'm not really sure where I stand on how everythign came to be.............but something still puzzles me........How scientist can say something has a certian age, when the methods for discerning its age were created by man.

Which would make any answer, a best guess at any level, and not factual. Even more confuzing is how we can "seemingly" know how things fitt together and took place way back when.....when scientist can't go back in time to document it, study it....or let alone re-create it.

I'm not saying I'm a creationist.....just confuzed is all....none of it really clicks at all for me......either that or It hasn't been explained to me in way that really makes sense...ya know
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Seconds you are putting the cart before the horse.

What has happened with modern science is, man takes stock of the world around him, and attempts to make the best sense of it using the tools at his disposal.

Of course many things in science remain largely theoretical due to the fact that conditions cannot be re-created and time can not be reversed or stopped...but that is no reason to throw your hands up and say "Well, evolution and modern science are just as good an explanation as Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker creating the world".
 
T

ThaG

Sicc OG
#12
Jun 30, 2005
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#12
in other words - you were not there when your grandmother gave birth to your father, but you do not questions the fact that this happened because there are many ways you can verify it
 
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