Although normally transient, RNA can persist postmortem when preserved by cold, desiccation or chemical treatment. In this Comment, we discuss how ancient RNA enables the study of gene expression of (pre)historic viruses, plants and animals going back at least as far as the last Ice Age.
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Acknowledgements
We apologize to the researchers whose work we could not cite here owing to limited space. M.R.F. acknowledges funding from VR consolidator grant 2022-03953 “InSync”. M.T.P.G. acknowledges funding from award DNRF143.
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M.T.P.G. is on the scientific advisory board of Colossal Biosciences. M.R.F. declares no competing interests.
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Friedländer, M.R., Gilbert, M.T.P. How ancient RNA survives and what we can learn from it. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 25, 417–418 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-024-00726-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-024-00726-y
