6,000-yr-old barley oldest plant to be sequenced
An international team of scientists has successfully sequenced the genes of 6,000-year-old barley seeds, making it the oldest plant genome to be reconstructed. Analysis of the remains retrieved from Yoram Cave in Israel revealed that ancient barley was very similar to present-day barley. To determine the age, the team split the grains and subjected half of them to radiocarbon dating.