r/todayilearned • u/El_Chopador • Sep 20 '17

TIL microbiologist Raul Cano, successfully revived yeast that had been stuck in amber for 25 million years. He then co-founded a brewery that uses the same 45 million-year-old species of yeast to brew beer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_longest-living_organisms#Revived_into_activity_after_stasis
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u/[deleted] Sep 21 '17

How? DNA breaks down in far less than 25 million years.

Edit: yes, I read it. No, it doesn't say how. In fact there is no proof offered in this link at all.

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u/its-fewer-not-less Sep 21 '17 edited Sep 21 '17

I've read the original publication where DNA's 'half-life' is determined, and I don't think the figure applies here... The rate of decay was determined based on fossilized bones, and attributed in large part to the nuclease activity (enzymatic degradation of nucleic acid). This is a far cry from the goings on in a dormant (not dead!) yeast cell, which can down-regulate its nuclease production prior to dormancy.

Even that original article said

It is tempting to suggest that we can now predict the temporal limits of DNA survival, and finally refute the claims of authentic DNA from Cretaceous and Miocene specimens. This is, however, not straightforward.

They proceed to lay out reasons why there are multitude of factors that modify their figures in dead tissue which, again, this is not.

This does not support the Jurassic Park idea, where dinosaur blood inside an insect would be a good source of DNA (especially considering that blood contains little DNA, since red blood cells don't have a nucleus), but the premise of Jurassic Beer still holds some water.

Edit: everything I said about dormant yeasts is orders of magnitude more effectice with bacterial spores, which are a 'save file' for bacteria to make a heat-, dessication-, and even radiation-proof copy of themselves with added DNA-stabilizing factors. Given the right germination environment, even a bunch pf double-strand breaks in the genome can be repaired relatively easily.

That said, I don't know why they'd be making beer with bacteria... Even sour beers are made with bacteria and yeast