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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3754090.stm

Quote:

Ancient fungus 'revived' in lab
Fungus from a deep-sea sediment core that is hundreds of thousands of years old can grow when placed in culture, scientists have discovered.

Indian researchers say the fungi come from sediments that are between 180,000 and 430,000 years old.

The finding adds to growing evidence for the impressive survival capabilities of many microorganisms.

They are the oldest known fungi that will grow on a nutrient medium, the scientists say in Deep Sea Research I.

The core was drilled from a depth of 5,904m in the Indian Ocean's Chagos Trench.

Like other ocean trenches, it is oriented parallel to a volcanic arc and is one of the deepest regions of the Indian Ocean.

On board their research vessel, Dr Chandralata Raghukumar and colleagues from the National Institute of Oceanography in Goa, India, and the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology in Hyderabad carefully deposited 5cm-long portions of the core into plastic bags which they then sealed to avoid contamination with present-day microbes.

The scientists then attempted to isolate bacteria and fungi from the middle of the 5cm-long "subsamples", because this region had not been in contact with the pipe used to extract the core - and therefore any modern microorganisms on it.

Blown away

Diluted malt extract agar was used as a nutrient medium to grow the fungus on. The team was able to culture fungi from six out of 22 subsections of the core.

At core depths of between 15 and 50cm, the scientists found fungus of a type that does not produce spores.

At a depth of 160cm (corresponding to an age of 180,000 years ago) they found high densities of a type of spore-producing fungus known as Aspergillus sydowii .

Considerable densities of this fungus were also found at depths of 280-370cm, corresponding to an age between 180,000 and 430,000 years ago.

The researchers think the microbes may be blown off the land into the sea. They then sink to the sea floor and are covered in deep-sea ocean sediments.

The oldest microorganisms found alive are thought to be bacteria isolated from 25-40-million-year-old bees trapped in amber.

In 2000, US researchers claimed to have found bacteria that had remained in suspended animation for 250 million years in salt crystals. But the claim was disputed almost as soon as it was made.

Microbiologist Dr Scott Rogers, of Bowling Green State University in Ohio, US, was unsurprised by the study, saying his own team had obtained similar dates for ancient fungal organisms they had recovered in ice.

Viable and perhaps actively growing microorganisms are also thought to survive in the depths of Lake Vostok in Antarctica. If so, they may have been isolated from outside communities of microorganisms for up to one million years.

Studying the distributions and numbers of fungal organisms in cores could tell scientists about past climatic conditions on Earth, say the authors of the study.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...ch/3754090.stm

Published: 2004/10/19 16:03:23 GMT

© BBC MMIV

I've watched too many horror films to think this is a good idea...

LOL Shamrock.

I think it's cool. I'm not entirely sure about the bee trapped in amber for 25-40 million years though. I was thinking that the oldest fossilized DNA that we have was about 30 mya, much less having living specimens to take it from.

There are also some kinds of plankton whose eggs remain viable after several thousand years.

Live, survive, reproduce til infinity [img]smile.gif[/img]

A bit off-topic, but have they managed to drill all the way down to Lake Vostok yet?

If I'm not mistaken, didn't they find out that the Earth is no older than 15,000 years old? I could have swore I read that somewhere. I don't think for an instant that its 480,000 years old, heh. Oh well, back to the books.

Quote:

Originally posted by Morgan_Corbesant:
If I'm not mistaken, didn't they find out that the Earth is no older than 15,000 years old? I could have swore I read that somewhere. I don't think for an instant that its 480,000 years old, heh. Oh well, back to the books.

Yeah, darn those fossil records from the precambrian.

How Old is the Earth?

Yep Morgan: the people who say that (and I'm surprised they moved it, it was supposed to be 6,500 or so), aren't well respected by the scientific community, nor are they part of it. You can find that 'finding' in a lot of places, and I'm sure you'll have no problem finding it. I can't imagine what, at this point, would prove that. The oldest remains of settlements are fully twice that old.

Anatomically modern human remains have been found that date around 1 million years ago. They'll likely discredit carbon dating (from what I've seen), but they will also have to discredit potassium-argon dating and others if they've done their homework.

[ 10-20-2004, 04:54 AM: Message edited by: Lucern ]

Quote:

Originally posted by Lucern:
LOL Shamrock.

I think it's cool.

Attack of the killer spores? No? :D

[ 10-20-2004, 05:13 AM: Message edited by: shamrock_uk ]

C'mon now Shamrock, Animalia has shown what it can do. Time for the rise of Kingdom Fungi!

Gracefully step down or they will force it :D