What an amazing bit of news! Tasmanian scientists have cloned a 43,000-year-old King's Lomatia tree to save it from a fungal infection. That sounds like something Brian Aldiss would write! http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/08/2679279.htm?section=justin But what makes it even more amazing is that this tree is believed to be the world's oldest living organism. It was first discovered in Tasmania's remote southwest wilderness 70 years ago. Carbon dating revealed the trees were more than 43,000 years old. But the tree can only reproduce by cloning itself. Sadly, all 500 strands of the tree - produced from one original plant - are under threat from the deadly root rot disease phytophthora, which is spreading rapidly through grass plains surrounding its habitat. An insurance population is being established by creating clones through tissue cultures. "When we first started we lost all the plants almost straight away," said Botanist Natalie Tapson from the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens. "We now have about 20 plants in tissue culture that have survived for about eight months and we're hopeful that we can keep tubing these on and get more and more plants that way." |
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