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Dr. Raul Cano (27K JPEG Image )
Ancient Bee in Amber (46K JPEG Image )
Ancient Bacteria (41K JPEG Image )
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- California Polytechnic State University microbiology professor Raul Cano has discovered that bacteria millions of years old can be brought back to life.
Cano, some of his students, and Ambergene Corp. of San Carlos have revived more than 1,200 types of bacteria and other one-celled organisms as old as 135 million years. Ancient microorganisms continue to be revived at Cal Poly and at Ambergene.
Their work marks the first proof that any organism approaching such antiquity can be brought back to life. The achievement opens a new avenue of discovery in biology and a completely new area of potential applications.
"We have discovered a brand new source of organisms that could produce life-saving pharmaceuticals or be used in valuable industrial processes," Cano said.
"And there's almost no downside," he said. "The risk is very low. These bacteria are different enough to give us new substances, but not different enough that we can't recognize them. There's no more danger with these bacteria than there is with any newly discovered modern microorganism."
The accomplishment will be published Friday, May 19, in Science, the weekly international research journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, in a paper authored by Cano and former Cal Poly graduate student Monica Borucki.
Cano revived the first of the ancient bacteria in late 1991. The 3 1/2-year wait for the announcement was necessary to validate the discovery. There have been claims before of reviving ancient microorganisms, but none has been conclusively proved.
All of the ancient bacteria revived by Cano were revived from bacterial spores trapped in amber -- fossilized tree sap.
Spores are a dormant form of bacteria.
Amber, and the resin that it comes from, are especially good preservatives, sealing an object from air, dehydrating it, and protecting it from physical damage.
Because of his previous success in isolating viable DNA from ancient insects encased in amber, Cano believed it would be possible to revive a complete single-cell organism millions of years old.
To prove it, he extracted material from the abdomen of an ancient bee after thoroughly sterilizing the exterior of the amber in which it was encased. He put the sample into a nutrient solution. Living bacteria were then found growing in the culture dishes.
By comparing DNA of ancient and modern bacteria, Cano showed conclusively that the bacteria were growing from spores that had been trapped in the amber millions of years ago, not from modern bacteria that had contaminated the samples.
While not the same, the revived bacteria were similar to "good" bacteria that aid digestion and help fight disease in bees today.
Cano and his students have meticulously followed biological safety procedures set by the National Institutes of Health. All work is done painstakingly to ensure the validity of the science as well as to prevent the release of material.
The age of the bacteria is determined from microscopic fossils in the rock strata from which the amber comes. The youngest is about 2 million years old, the oldest, 135 million.
Cano and several students are studying many of the microorganisms. Using DNA analysis, he hopes to develop a "genetic tag" to help classify each one. He also hopes to get a better idea of what applications they might have.
Ambergene has greatly expanded and refined Cano's original recovery methods. It has revived the great majority of the microorganisms revived so far and is actively pursuing possible commercial uses.
The company was founded solely for the purpose of pursuing commercial applications of Cano's discovery. It became a sponsor of Cano's research, contributing money, materials and ideas to further develop and validate the basic discovery.
Ambergene bought the 16 original bacteria cultures revived by Cano and his students and all rights to the discovery. At the moment, the company is sponsoring four research projects in Cano's lab in Cal Poly's Biological Sciences Department.
A contract between Cal Poly and Ambergene provides for royalties to be paid to the university if any of the bacteria or other microorganisms discovered through Cano's method are found to have commercial uses.
Cano first gained international attention in 1992 and 1993 as part of the first team to extract and clone sections of DNA from Dinosaur Age insects encased in amber. The announcement coincided with the premiere of Steven Spielberg's film "Jurassic Park," based on the Michael Crichton novel. The book and film took their premise from work such as Cano's.
Cano's new announcement in no way lends further credence to fiction about reviving animals.
"It has been known for some time," Cano said, "that, because of their size, structure and composition, some bacteria can survive as spores for long periods, much as seeds outlive a plant. That is not true of complex organisms."
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