Scientists have revived a worm frozen that had been frozen for 46,000 years, during which woolly mammoths, saber-toothed tigers, and giant elks roamed the Earth. This specific roundworm belonged to a previously unknown species and was in a state of dormancy known as cryptobiosis, located 40 meters (131.2 feet) beneath the Siberian permafrost.
It has been observed that organisms in this state can survive without water or oxygen and endure high or freezing temperatures and extremely salty conditions.
The metabolic rates of these organisms decrease to an undetectable level, which Kurzchalia, a professor emeritus at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, describes as being "between death and life".
This discovery is a significant breakthrough as other organisms revived from this state have only survived for decades, not millennia.
Five years ago, worms were discovered in Siberian permafrost.
Five years ago, researchers at the Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science in Russia discovered two roundworm species in the Siberian permafrost. Anastasia Shatilovich, a researcher at the institute, successfully revived two worms by rehydrating them with water. She then took around 100 worms for further analysis to labs in Germany, transporting them in her pocket.
Further investigation revealed that P. kolymaenis and C. Elegans, another organism frequently used in scientific studies, share a "molecular toolkit" that could enable them to survive cryptobiosis. The two organisms produce a sugar called trehalose that likely helps them withstand freezing and dehydration.
Philipp Schiffer, research group leader of the Institute of Zoology at the University of Cologne, stated,
"To see that the same biochemical pathway is used in a species which is 200, 300mn years away, that's really striking. It means that some processes in evolution are deeply conserved."
He added that studying these organisms could provide valuable insights that inform conservation biology and efforts to protect other species in extreme conditions.
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