Was the first few seed banks in Giant freezers or under mountains?Please tell me this cuz it's important. Basically what was the world's first seed bank called and where was it? In a freezer or in a mountain. |
Was the first few seed banks in Giant freezers or under mountains?Please tell me this cuz it's important. Basically what was the world's first seed bank called and where was it? In a freezer or in a mountain. |
Recently (February 2012) Russian scientist announced they had regenerated a narrow leaf campion (Silene stenophylla) from a 32,000 year old seed. The seed was found in a burrow 124 feet under Siberian permafrost along with 800,000 other seeds. Seed tissue was grown in test tubes until it could be transplanted to soil. This shows how long DNA can be viable in the proper conditions
Nikolai Vavilov (1887–1943) was a Russian geneticist and botanist who, through botanic-agronomic expeditions, collected seeds from all over the world. He set up one of the first seedbanks, in Leningrad (now St Petersburg), which survived the 28-month Siege of Leningrad in World War II. It is now known as the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry. Several botanists starved to death rather than eat the collected seeds.