Chemistry World
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(Illustration) Scientists revive ‘zombies.’
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Intisari-Online.com – In news that is not as scary as it sounds, but no less interesting, Russian scientists have revived and cloned zombie 24,000 years old.
Launch Popular Mechanic, Monday (28/6/2021), organism live corpse referred to as rotifera bdelloid, or microscopic “wheel animal” so named because its circular mouth is surrounded by tiny hairs.
Like the more charismatic tardigrade, rotifera bdelloid are extremophiles.
These are organisms that can survive in amazing conditions such as a hot underwater vent or a vacuum.
Also Read: Funny! The History of Diving in the Ocean Turns Out to Start with a Sponge in the Bathroom
For this experiment, scientists went to Siberia and carved out a piece of permafrost, the term for soil that remains permanently frozen.
This particular area has been frozen since at least the end of the Pleistocene epoch (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago).
Scientists took frozen rotifers and gently thawed them, at which point the rotifers began to live their lives again, including their typical asexual reproduction.
The secret to rotifers’ success is a state of suspended animation called cryptobiosis.
“They suspend their metabolism and accumulate certain compounds such as chaperone proteins that help them recover from cryptobiosis when conditions improve,” lead author Stas Malavin, a researcher at the Russian Institute of Physical and Biological Problems in Soil Sciences told Live Science.
Cryptobiosis is very important, because organisms with this capacity go into a special sleep state that is needed to be revived later.
Think about an animal preparing to hibernate versus an animal that accidentally takes a nap.
Preparation is the key to a successful rebuild.
Popular Mechanic
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Like the more charismatic tardigrades, bdelloid rotifers are extremophiles.
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To study the rotifers, scientists dug up to 11.5 feet to extract intact soil samples, which are about 24,000 years old, according to carbon dating.
After allowing the soil to thaw with a special medium to help wake the rotifers, scientists quickly lost track of which microscopic creatures were old and which were new offspring.
This happens because rotifers reproduce by creating exact clones of themselves asexually.
Researching cryptobiosis in creatures like rotifers helps further the field of cryobiology — the study of living things at very low temperatures — in general, Malavin told Live Science.
Yes, hypothetically, this could lead to a similar technology for humans.
But that idea is still a long way off, because humans are clearly more complex than the relatively simple small rotifers and other extrophilic organisms.
Rotifera joins a line of revived and long -frozen organisms that include mosses, weeds, and small worms called nematodes.
Scientists revive every organism after at least 1,000 years of freezing.
In the future, stronger plants with cryptobiotic properties could change everything from agriculture to storage, and maybe even travel with humans to Mars.
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