tardigrade are screw to be one of the hardiest animal in the world . Found in every environs , from the top of mountains to the bottom of the sea , the tough lilliputian moss piggy can even survive the vacuum of space . In an endeavour to excuse how the critter are able-bodied to manage this astonishing feat researchers have scoured the animal ’s factor , and may have see some clues .
By sequencing the genome of theRamazzottius variornatustardigrade , one of the hardiest known species , the team of scientists from the University of Tokyo was capable to identify sure characteristic unparalleled to the water bears that may be important in protecting them against the extreme tenseness of the environments in which they live . One of the most prominent breakthrough was of a protein termed “ Dsup ” that is unique to tardigrades , and seems to have a role in protecting deoxyribonucleic acid against damage .
“ Dsup can protect DNA from actinotherapy as well as oxidative stress in human cultured cells and even confab improved radiotolerance on human cultured prison cell , ” explained Takekazu Kunieda , who co - authored the study write inNature Communications , to IFLScience . “ This clearly manifest that the tolerability can be transferred to other beast cell by [ introducing ] tardigrade - unique gene . Our tardigrade genome succession stop many tardigrade - unique genes and these could be a freehanded reservoir for unexampled protective covering genes and mechanism . ”
Not only have they found that Dsup is unique to the weewee bear , but they have also regain a whole boniface of other genetic clue to their ability to survive utmost stress . The creature ' DNA also contain more transcript of anti - oxidant enzymes and a DNA repair gene , which may help fight damage triggered by oxidants like free radical , as well as a few copies of oxidative enzyme that could themselves demean DNA . It seems then that the tardigrades have a whole genetic arsenal at their disposal to protect themselves against their environment .
“ They did not perform effectual cleaning before sampling and several accompany studies indicate that most of the discover [ horizontal cistron transferee ] genes are highly likely deduce from contaminate microorganisms not included in tardigrade genome , ” Kunieda told IFLScience . After meticulously clean their own samples to make certain they were as saturated as potential , and then using the same technique employed in the first study , Kunieda and his squad find oneself that only around 1.2 pct of the tardigrade DNA is from other germ , a fairly workaday design for brute .
