07-28-2023, 09:00 PM
Smithsonian Magazine
From 46,000-year-old Siberian permafrost, a team of researchers has collected and revived prehistoric roundworms, according to a new study published Thursday in the journal PLOS Genetics.
The parasitic microorganisms seem to have remained alive by entering a state called cryptobiosis, in which they reduce their metabolism to extremely low levels to withstand extreme conditions. Essentially, the worms were frozen in time.
The researchers calculated the age of the roundworms, or nematodes, by radiocarbon dating plant material also found in the permafrost. They determined the organisms are members of a previously unknown species, which they’ve dubbed Panagrolaimus kolymaensis, after the Kolyma River near the site the worms were found.
“We can say that they are alive, because they move, they eat bacteria on the culture plates, and they reproduce,” Philipp Schiffer, a co-author of the study and evolutionary biologist at the University of Cologne in Germany, tells the Washington Post’s Carolyn Y. Johnson.
“To have a complex and multicellular organism that can shut down and go into this state of suspended animation—for all extents and purposes appear dead... that’s mind-boggling,” says Thomas Boothby, a molecular biologist at the University of Wyoming who didn’t contribute to the research, to the Wall Street Journal’s Dominique Mosbergen.
Full article @ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-revive-46000-year-old-roundworms-from-siberian-permafrost-180982620/
From 46,000-year-old Siberian permafrost, a team of researchers has collected and revived prehistoric roundworms, according to a new study published Thursday in the journal PLOS Genetics.
The parasitic microorganisms seem to have remained alive by entering a state called cryptobiosis, in which they reduce their metabolism to extremely low levels to withstand extreme conditions. Essentially, the worms were frozen in time.
The researchers calculated the age of the roundworms, or nematodes, by radiocarbon dating plant material also found in the permafrost. They determined the organisms are members of a previously unknown species, which they’ve dubbed Panagrolaimus kolymaensis, after the Kolyma River near the site the worms were found.
“We can say that they are alive, because they move, they eat bacteria on the culture plates, and they reproduce,” Philipp Schiffer, a co-author of the study and evolutionary biologist at the University of Cologne in Germany, tells the Washington Post’s Carolyn Y. Johnson.
“To have a complex and multicellular organism that can shut down and go into this state of suspended animation—for all extents and purposes appear dead... that’s mind-boggling,” says Thomas Boothby, a molecular biologist at the University of Wyoming who didn’t contribute to the research, to the Wall Street Journal’s Dominique Mosbergen.
Full article @ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-revive-46000-year-old-roundworms-from-siberian-permafrost-180982620/
