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                     Scientists Revive Long-dormant Plants

   by VOA News

   Scientists have succeeded in bringing back to life plants that have
   spent more than 400 years under a glacier.
   The plants known as bryophytes, more commonly known as mosses and
   liverworts, were left behind by retreating glaciers and are thought to
   be between 400 and 600 years old. The finding overturns the long-held
   assumption that plants exposed by shrinking glaciers are dead.
   In a laboratory setting, researchers took 24 samples and were able to
   successfully produce eleven cultures regenerated from four species.
   "These simple, efficient plants, which have been around for more than
   400 million years, have evolved a unique biology for optimal
   resilience," says [1]Catherine La Farge, director and curator of the
   Cryptogamic Herbarium at the University of Alberta in Canada. "Any
   bryophyte cell can reprogram itself to initiate the development of an
   entire new plant. This is equivalent to stem cells in faunal systems."
   La Farge said no one expected the plants to be rejuvenated after nearly
   400 year beneath a glacier.
   The finding, according to La Farge, "amplifies the critical role of
   bryophytes in polar environments and has implications for all
   permafrost regions of the globe."
   "Bryophytes are extremophiles that can thrive where other plants don't;
   hence they play a vital role in the establishment, colonization and
   maintenance of polar ecosystems," she said. "This discovery emphasizes
   the importance of research that helps us understand the natural world,
   given how little we still know about polar ecosystems - with applied
   spinoffs for understanding reclamation that we may never have
   anticipated."
   The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy
   of Sciences.
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   [2]http://www.voanews.com/content/scientists-revive-long-dormant-plants
   /1669888.html

References

   1. http://news.ualberta.ca/newsarticles/2013/may/400-year-old-plants-reawaken-as-glaciers-recede
   2. http://www.voanews.com/content/scientists-revive-long-dormant-plants/1669888.html