Scientists have discovered a molecular change that makes tardigrades powerful creatures that can survive in almost all conditions.
If someone asks, what is the most dangerous creature in the world? I think a lot of people will think about that “Water Bear” (Tardigrada) A small eight-legged creature, only a millimeter in size. Which can live in all conditions, where if any other living creature had, it would have died.
There are more than 1,300 species of water bears, and they can be found anywhere in the world, including mountaintops, deep seas, tropical rainforests, and Antarctica.
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Tardigrades can survive in extremes of heat and cold. You don't have to worry about your blood pressure being too high or too low. Even if you encounter dangerous radiation, it will be okay. Or even if there is a shortage of water, or a shortage of food, or even a shortage of air it can still survive and what is even more amazing is that even in space it can survive!
Not only that, their species has been around for 600 million years, or older than dinosaurs. And surviving every mass extinction (the Great Extinction) as well.
This has always made scientists wonder. What is the mechanism behind this extreme ability to sustain life?
Scientists have finally discovered the molecular mechanism that water bears use to reach this state. They are “virtually invincible”, which protects them from harsh environments, including the vacuum of space.
The difficulty they have in dying is partly due to their ability to recover. Scientists have found that in any state unsuitable for life, the water bear shrinks until it becomes a dry, almost indestructible ball, known as the “tun state.”
This state is similar to hibernation. A change called “Anhydrobiosis” where their legs give way. Its plump body curls into a small ball and releases 95% of its body moisture, which helps it survive high temperatures. Resistant to strong radiation and even though he was shot with a gun, he was unharmed, which would have created an enormous amount of friction and shock for a small animal like a water bear.
But in the past, scientists weren't so sure. How do they do this?
“It has long been understood that water bears can undergo certain anatomical changes through certain processes. But the mechanism by which water bears sense environmental fluctuations and send signals to enter and exit a reservoir state is still an unanswered question,” the research team said.
But in a new study published January 17 in the journal PLOS One, researchers have uncovered the molecular underpinnings of this remarkable survival skill.
To determine how these objects display the ability to transition to tank state. The team exposed the water bear, Hypsibius exemplaris, to various life-threatening conditions, and measured the chemistry inside the water bear's cells.
Scientists have found that these organisms produce free radicals that turn them into a tank state.
Free radicals are produced in sea bear cells during a period known as “oxidative stress,” or free radical abundance. Which in most animals this condition is considered very serious. This is because free radicals react with proteins and DNA fragments, causing dangerous mutations.
But scientists have discovered that in water bears free radicals react with the amino acid cysteine. To transform the water bear into a state of near immortality.
When scientists tried to inhibit the cysteine oxidation process, they found that water bears would actually be unable to enter a tank state.
The next step for scientists is: It will be interesting to see if this mechanism is common to all species of sea bears.
There's one thing scientists don't say that's very interesting. Is there any way? That humans will imitate the process of the water bear so that we can withstand all conditions. Whether we are hot, cold, hungry, thirsty or in space, we will still be able to live.
Compiled from Live sciences
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