3 ms·
Where are you getting that figure? Everything I had ever read on the subject puts the half-life at more like 500 (five-hundred) years. While doing a quick doubl
by delecti 3y ago
Where are you getting that figure? Everything I had ever read on the subject puts the half-life at more like 500 (five-hundred) years. While doing a quick double-check for this comment, it seems there was one sample with the unexpectedly long observed half-life of 15,000 years, still a couple orders of magnitude less than a million years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_DNA#Non-human_aDNA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_DNA#Non-human_aDNA
- dekhn 3y agoI'm not an expert in this area but I do know a fair amount on the subject. I believe the section you linked is out of date. The DNA we get back from old situations typically was preserved, by dryness/freezing, and it's still quite fragmentary. The actual "half life" of DNA is not that interesting- its the details of the DNA remnants that matter.
- Tagbert 3y agoPreservation conditions might have some bearing. This recent news article suggests nematodes actually surviving after 46K years in permafrost. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/46-000-year-old-worm-possibly-revived-from-siberian-permafrost/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/46-000-year-old-w...
- sedatk 3y agoThat’s room temperature. Frozen DNA is significantly more resilient. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0702196104 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.0702196104