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  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

How 600-year-old ginkgo trees stay youthful

By some measures, ancient trees in China have equal vigor to whippersnappers a few decades old.
A 1,400-year-old ginkgo tree in China.

A ginkgo tree in Xi’an, China, that an emperor planted some 1,400 years ago. Genetic activity in old ginkgos resembles that of much younger trees. Credit: Alamy

Centuries-old ginkgo trees show high activity in genes that fend off disease and produce antioxidants, just as their more youthful counterparts do.

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Nature 577, 452 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-00067-8

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