"THEY JUST START MAKING EGGS, WHICH DEVELOP," NOT NEEDING TO FIND MALES AND
HAVE SEX.
The carcasses of tiny roundworms that were discovered frozen 130 feet below
the Siberian permafrost and dated back 46,000 years have been successfully
revived by researchers.
Amazingly, the worms began reproducing in a lab dish immediately away and
set to work.
The researchers claim that, despite the fact that it may seem like the
prologue to a "Jurassic Park"-style film, they had a solid cause for
bringing these species back: the need to learn how life may adapt to rapidly
shifting weather patterns and climate change.
The multinational team of researchers reported how they resurrected a
recently found species of nematodes, which are thin worms that can live in a
wide variety of conditions, in a recent article that was published in the
journal PLOS Genetics.
They discovered that this specific species has the capacity to halt
metabolism and enter a condition known as "cryptobiosis," which enables it
to live for tens of thousands of years.
The scientists "mildly desiccated" and frozen both the ancient species and
a more thoroughly examined control group over the course of numerous trials,
and discovered that both were easily able to withstand temperatures as low
as -112 degrees Fahrenheit, not unlike the survival strategy of
tardigrades.
They were easily roused from their suspended condition and forced to begin
reproducing.
According to Philipp Schiffer, an evolutionary biologist at the University
of Cologne and a co-author of the study, "basically, you just have to bring
the worms into amenable conditions, on a culture (agar) plate with some
bacteria, some humidity, and room temperature." Then they simply begin to
crawl about. They also just began reproducing.
Given that it is an exclusively female (asexual) species, he said, "In this
case, it is even easier." They just begin producing eggs, which grow, rather
of seeking out men and engaging in sexual activity.
Make Me Live!
The study may have significant ramifications for our comprehension of how
sophisticated creatures may endure prolonged stagnation.
The report states that its findings "indicate that some nematode species
gained the potential for individual worms to remain in the state for
geological timeframes by adapting to survive [in a] cryptobiotic state for
short time frames in environments like permafrost."
The researchers hypothesize that because of how quickly the environment is
changing due to global warming, species like these nematodes may be roused
from their millennia-long dormancy. This would be an outstanding survival
strategy that may "lead to the refoundation of otherwise extinct
lineages."
