The world's oldest bacteria( A research team has for the first ti...)

A research team 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.

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 regenerate 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.

The research team, which consists of 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 func
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