32,000-Year-Old Bacteria Found in Alaska

NASA researchers have obtained 32,000-year old bacteria from Alaskan permafrost that came back to life when thawed.

The bacterium, named Carnobacterium pleistocenium, was recovered in a frozen pond exposed in the side of a tunnel dug through Pleistocene-era ice by the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.

Dr. Richard B. Hoover, a biologist at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, said he noticed a discolored patch in a layer that froze 32,000 years ago. Back at his laboratory, Dr. Hoover and colleague Dr. Elena Pikuta noticed the bacteria that started moving as soon as the ice thawed.

Hoover said the bacterium is not poisonous although some of its close relatives cause disease in fish.

He went on to say the potential benefits of the hardy bacteria are high.

The enzymes and proteins it possesses, which give it the ability to spring to life after such long periods of dormancy, might hold the key to long-term, cryogenic — or very low temperature — storage of living cells, tissues and perhaps even complex life forms, Hoover said.

The findings are reported in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.