Sydney, Dec 22 (IANS) Researchers have sequenced the chloroplast DNA of the ancient Wollemi Pine, known as the ‘dinosaur’ of the tree kingdom, which survived 200 million years of shifting continents and changing climates.
Using next-generation sequencing machines in the Ramaciotti Centre for Gene Function Analysis, University of New South Wales (UNSW) students produced a draft sequence of the approximately 180,000 nucleotides of the DNA code of the Wollemi’s chloroplast genome.

The Wollemi (Wollemia nobilis) was known to science from fossil records but was thought to be extinct until 1994 when David Noble discovered it in a remote rainforest canyon in Wollemi National Park, 150 km north-west of Sydney.

Fewer than a hundred trees are known to be growing wild, in three localities not far apart. These trees show an extremely low level of genetic diversity and are threatened by introduced fungal diseases and climate change.

The Wollemi is being protected from extinction by secrecy surrounding the locations of the wild populations, and by widespread cultivation of the pine in Australia and around the world.

The students’ preliminary findings show that the Wollemi chloroplast DNA is unique but shares some features with other pines such as the Kauri and Norfolk Island Pine. Further analysis of the data will provide clues to the evolution of the Wollemi and other pines, said a UNSW release.

The students presented their findings as a poster at the Australasian Microarray and Associated Technologies Association Conference held in October 2009.