Nothing the tardigrade does could really storm us at this point . Scientists now say the microscopic critters produce “ glass shields ” inside their cells to protect life-sustaining chemicals from dry out . They published their news report on the tardigrades ’ latest bizarre natural endowment in the journalMolecular Cell .
Tardigrades , also known adorably as water bears or moss piggy , may be themost extreme organismson or off this satellite . When the going beat tough — whether that ’s high heating plant , freeze cold , extreme dryness , or the vacuum of space — tardigrades dry up and shut down , going into a near - death state called cryptobiosis . Later , when the environment is livable again , they spring back to life like flyspeck , many - legged Snow Whites . Exactlyhow they pull this offhas remained something of a secret .
There are other organisms that can pull round dry up and rehydrating . Many of them do so by producing a carbohydrate called trehalose , which vitrifies , or turns into glass , inside their cell , create a protective coating around life history - sustaining protein and other molecules .
But not all tardigrade mintage can make trehalose — which suggested to scientists that the piddle bear might raise their own proprietary cloth to keep their corpuscle safe .
Researchers pored over the genome of the unremarkably studied tardigrade speciesHypsibius dujardiniandParamacrobiotus richtersilooking for cistron that might let the critter pump out some form of protective gear .
They get hold a few . dry out out the tardigrades prompted both species to flip on genes associated with weird chemicals called per se disordered proteins ( IDPs ) . The specific IDP were , unsurprisingly , unique to tardigrades and have n’t been determine in any other organisms .
If we can enter out how to harness these gene , the writer say , we could work out big problems in keeping both crop and biomedical samples secure in extreme circumstance .
[ h / tScience ]
