Ginkgo almost immortal study reveals

The Ginkgo tree can live more than 3000 years. Now researchers published an article (PNAS, Wang et al., 2020) that reveals the mechanisms that make Ginkgo survive so long by comparing very old and young Ginkgos in China.

Most plants eventually reach senescence (biological aging). Genes responsible for that life phase weren’t any more active in the oldest Ginkgo specimen. Antioxidants and antimicrobials to stay healthy appeared to be just as active in the old Ginkgo trees as they were in the young ones, as were genes related to the Ginkgo immune system.
"There’s no end point in their ability to keep growing," says Rick Dixon, a biochemist at the University of North Texas and co-author of the paper. "The immune system in these trees, even though they’re 1,000 years old, looks like that of a 20-year-old.”

From the article:
"Our results reveal that long-lived trees have evolved compensatory mechanisms to maintain a balance between growth and aging processes. This involves continued cambial divisions, high expression of resistance-associated genes, and continued synthetic capacity of preformed protective secondary metabolites."

Article:
PNAS.org 

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